Christmas cards

Just a note to say, we aren't doing our Christmas cards this, just not enough time with everything else going on. But we love all of you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Blessings and Sacrifice

Don't get me wrong. I love the Christmas season, the twinkling lights and decorations, seeing my kids' excitement, visiting with family and friends. But I don't love illness. And unfortunately those things usually coincide. Currently, Micah is the only one who seems to be in tip-top shape at our house. Although I just learned that the flu has hit our town and strep throat is going around Micah's school. I'm just praying he can stay healthy and the rest of us can recover before we fly to Wisconsin. There are many things I love to share with our family, but disease is not one of them. Last night as I was rocking Jacob back to sleep after a stuffy nose woke him up, I had a flash of insight. It's still ironic to me that in my most brain-addled, middle-of-the-night state the best things come to me. As usual, I was going back and forth between isn't-he precious thoughts and I'm-exhausted-and-wish-I- could-go-back-to-sleep thoughts. I started thinking about how much parents sacrifice for their children. The things Dan and I do for Micah and Jacob, the things our parents have done and still do for us. Sometimes, we don't even think of those things as sacrifices, it's such a blessing to be able to give them. The fact is that gifts, blessings and sacrifice are tied together. It's a blessing to be holding this sweet baby, to be able to comfort him the way a mommy can. It's a sacrifice, albeit on a small scale, to get up multiple times in the night and do it, forgoing my own much-needed rest. I started thinking about Christmas, this season of giving. We think of Jesus as God's gift to humanity, an outstretched hand that says, "I love you, I will make a way for you." That is the bright, joyful message of Christ and Christmas. But the other part is all bleak-midwinter. It's that moment when Jesus came from heaven to earth and gave up his throne to become one of us. God gave up his son. Sacrifice. I can't speak for God, but sometimes I wonder if he wasn't doing kind of the same thing I was last night, in that moment, on a greater scale. Joy that he could make a way for us, his loved creation, to get to know him; grief because he knew what it cost. It makes my sacrifice look small. The holidays can be a dark time for many. We make happy memories but we grieve over the ones gone by, the people we can't celebrate with anymore the circumstances that have changed, the disappointments. But there are blessings both small and large too, the fact that we're still here, our loved ones and the ones that love us, the little corners in which we find contentment. I'm so glad I have a God who understands that life isn't black and white it's a beautiful blend. Just a week ago, our town experienced terrible tragedy when several people were murdered. In a town this small, where everyone is related, this is a huge blow, not just to the family but to everyone. I pray that even these people would be able to find those small traces of light in all of this darkness. Merry Christmas and Blessed Advent to all.

Christmastime is Here

 Our "Charlie Brown" tree

 "The Wheels on the Bus..."

"Chocolate Cheerios? Mmmm!"


'Tis the season for late nights, too many sweets and getting the kids to be good by telling them Santa's checking his list! We've been going to our share of get-togethers over the past week and we still have  a few more to go. This weekend we will be visiting Santa at a special breakfast at Micah's school. This is the first year that Micah has specifically requested to visit with Santa so we are trying to make that happen. We will be celebrating our Christmas at home this weekend since we will be in Wisconsin for the actual day and it's easier to do things that way than bring our gifts for each other up there an back. Micah's been asking me if Santa is "true," his way of asking if he's real. So far, I've been a little evasive. We don't push the Santa thing, but we have no problems with Santa at our house either. He's part of the Christmas magic. I usually just say something like, "Isn't it exciting to think about Santa?" And so far he's accepting that. At the downtown Christmas parade last week, Santa threw a whole handful of candy just at Micah! That's one of the perks of having a daddy who knows Santa personally (Santa is a full-white-bearded theatre professor from Henderson and one of Dan's colleagues in the area). We were talking about gifts and giving and getting them at Christmas. I started to explain the concept of spiritual gifts, like how God gives people abilities or things they are especially good at so that we can share those things with each other. I told him it was like a treasure inside of our hearts that we had to discover and that sometimes it took awhile for people to figure out what theirs is. We also talked about how sharing ourselves is a gift all by itself. Micah really wants to know what his gift is now. But after giving him some examples of the kinds of gifts people have, he decided that he'd like to have a beautiful singing voice, if he got to pick. I don't know if that wish will come true, but I do know that he does wonderful renditions of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and  "Jesus Loves Me" that bring tears to my eyes. I'm pretty sure God thinks its pretty sweet too. Jacob's favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus." We found a video of some kids singing and doing the motions to this and he loves it, asking to watch is over and over..."Bus?" "Bus!" You can see him clapping after the performance in the photo above. So far we have managed to keep him from ingesting too many artificial pine needles and ornament glitter, but he does like to pull items off the tree. Good thing we tethered that baby to the wall!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Daddy and Micah play with a new toy.

 One of Micah's Thanksgiving projects from school.

 Jacob tries on a snowsuit in preparation for our trip to Wisconsin.

 Goofin' around

 Fishy-faces

 Micah helps put ornaments on the tree.

 Jacob helps eat hang ornament on the tree.

Micah loves Christmas lights!

Some silliness from Jacob :-)

Although we all had some illness over the break, we still had a good Thanksgiving. We had a nice meal at the home of some church friends and spent that afternoon playing in their backyard in the mild Arkansas weather. They sent us home with leftover turkey and pie :-) On Friday we put up the Christmas tree and decorations and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at home, getting better, taking walks and watching movies. We did drive over to DeGray Lake to see the lights that had put up for the holidays. There is usually a big lights presentation later in the season, but they had put a few things up down by the marina so we went over there because Micah just loves Christmas lights. Hopefully we will be putting a few up this year ourselves. We purchased tickets for Garvin Gardens' Holiday Lights display in December and are looking forward to that. It's a huge arboretum in Hot Springs that is supposed to be really beautiful at Christmas time. The next few weeks will be busy ones for Dan since he has rehearsals for Festival of Christmas at OBU and the one-act play festival, not to mention preparing for finals and completing all the grading! At my work, we have been given a new interim boss so I imagine there will be a few changes, but hopefully for the better. Overall, it was a good Thanksgiving. Sometimes when everything isn't perfect, it does make me appreciate those everyday moments that I take for granted, like everyone waking up healthy and able to go to work/school. Micah is already asking if it is Christmas yet. And I told him, "No, not until your brother has chewed every ornament on the tree." :-) No, but really, he is asking every day. And Jacob really is going for that record. You would think we don't feed him enough! But a glimpse of those chubby cheeks will tell you otherwise. Here is a shout-out to my nephew Josh and his wife-to-be Melissa who are getting married this weekend! Hope everything goes smoothly in the festivities and more importantly, that your marriage is wonderful. I hope every one has a blessed Christmas season.

Beanbag

 Micah's favorite new perch.

 Daddy and the recovering Jacob.

Jacob, chillin' in the beaner.

This post is mainly for Aunt Helen who was kind enough to send a beanbag chair for Micah's birthday! These two rowdy boys have enjoyed playing on it, stuffing it into the jumperoo or onto the couch and smooshing themselves into it. Thank you Aunt Helen! Jacob was well enough to return to school today so we are glad about that. He is still having a very hard time adjusting to sleeping by himself in the crib so we have not had very good nights lately. Hopefully, that will change soon. We are trying to decide what to do for Thanksgiving. With everything else going on, I'm not sure I want to fix the meal if it's just us so we might go out this year--a first for us. We will see! I guess it depends on if anyone else will be hanging around town for the holiday. Of course, we like to decorate our Christmas tree over the weekend so that will be a highlight. There will be pictures!

Jumperoo Redux

This maniacal look says it all...he jumperoo has returned! Thanks to Gramma Lynn and Papa Roger the boys have a new jumperoo to play in. The other one we had was so well used it would no longer inflate and believe me, it was sorely missed. Micah was so happy to open this gift of a new one for his birthday. We did our best to make the actual day  (Friday) a fun one for Micah. He did have a small celebration at school and we ordered pizza that night for dinner, but I'm afraid it was overshadowed by the fact that Jacob caught Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease that day and we have struggled with that all weekend. It's so hard to see him in such pain from the sores in his throat. And of course, we all got very little sleep. But I think he has finally turned the corner.  For the past four days all he has wanted has been "ogre" (yogurt) and "apoo" (applesauce). But this morning he was able to eat banana and drink juice without crying, even after the Tylenol wore off. Getting him back on his sleep routine will be hard, but now that he's feeling better things are looking up.

Accomplishments

Micah earned his Cubbies vest this week at AWANA! He was so proud of himself, but for some reason he didn't want me to take his picture...this is all I could get. Thanks to Aunt Deb and Uncle Dave for the birthday card and money. As you can see, Micah thought he was a pretty rich boy! He keeps asking when he will really be five, since we've been having mini celebrations for several weeks now and his party was over a week ago. Poor kid, he's all confused. I tagged on this cute video of Jacob rocking in his high chair. He just loves to do this, especially when he has an audience. I took this video when my parents were visiting. They may do some inexplicable things at times, but they are pretty great kids :-)

Happy Halloween!

Jacob is ready for bed in his glow-in-the-dark dinosaur pajamas!

Pop Pop and Micah enjoy playing with birthday balloons

 We enjoyed our visit!

 Daddy helps Spider-Man into his costume.

Jacob gets a head start on all that holiday munching.

"Trick or treat, I'm so sweet! Give me something good to eat!"

 Not too sure about the hood part...

Pre-party hugs

Spider-Man adds the finishing touches to his ensemble.

Ready to head out!

Both boys had Halloween parties at school yesterday. I don't think they give too many sweets to the little ones, but Micah was pretty sugared up by the time I picked him up from school! We went home and ate a quick dinner then headed over to the Lotta party (lotta games, lotta candy, lotta fun) at our church's parking lot. There were hundreds of kids there and Micah had fun playing the games, jumping in the bounce house and eating a snow cone and popcorn--two of his favorite treats. Jacob came along in the stroller and was just mesmerized by all the costumes and the noise. We then went to my coworkers house and his babysitter's apartment for some door-to-door trick-or-treating. This was really important to Micah since they had been reviewing the safety rules for this all week long as school and he had memorized every one of them! By the time we finished with all that, it was time to head home and tuck two wired and tired little boys into bed. It was a bit of a rough night getting Jacob accustomed to sleeping in the crib by himself again, but we managed. Grammy and Pop Pop made it safely home to Delaware last night. We had to explain to Micah that we couldn't trick-or-treat at their house because it was too far away. Maybe someday!

Birthday and Family Fun!

 Grammas are the best story readers!

"Only YOU can prevent forest fires!"

Pop Pop is hoping for a budding golf player. Jacob's not so sure yet :-)

A handful of happiness!

The birthday cake! (No, I didn't make that!)

Micah and his friend Jonathan playing Spider-Man toss at his party.

Daddy delivering the cake...

And Micah enjoying it!

Micah opening gifts.

Quick pics with mom..

Woo hoo! Spider-Man Mega Bloks.

We are having a great visit with Grammy and Pop Pop Noden! We decided to celebrate Micah's birthday a little early so they could be here with us so we had the party last weekend. We survived six little boys running around the house (really, they were all good kids) and I think Micah enjoyed the whole thing. We played spider-related games, had some cake and ice cream and opened presents. Since mom and dad can't get back to the coast due to Hurricane Sandy, we are enjoying a few more days together! Hopefully I will be able to get some more grandparent photos tonight. They are supposed to fly out tomorrow but we still don't know if that's possible yet. We've had a low-key visit, but it's been really nice just hanging out around the town and watching the boys get spoiled :-) The only downside is that since Jacob and Micah are sharing a room, there hasn't been too much sleeping going on. In fact, almost every night around 3 a.m. a certain squirmy little person ends up snuggled next to mom and dad in the bed. Is he ever going to have a tough time when he learns he has to sleep in his own bed again! For now, we are making the best of it...and drinking a little extra coffee in the mornings. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I will be posting  photos of Spider-Man and his trusty sidekick, Giraffe, soon. We plan to take the boys over to a trunk-or-treat costume party at church. There are a million places hosting event since there really isn't door-to-door trick-or-treating anymore, so there are plenty of things to choose from. We are thinking of and praying for all of our friends and relatives who have had a visit from Sandy and hoping that everyone is safe and well.

Calling Santa...

Since Micah's birthday and Christmas are right around the corner, I asked Micah what he would like for a present. He was more concerned with how we were going to contact Santa.

Jacob loves to groove to the tunes. You can see him get down to a rousing rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Not much new to say this week. Micah was very excited to receive a package from Papa Roger in the mail yesterday. He knew what it would be. When we Skyped last weekend, Papa was enjoying a chocolate bar. He tried to hand some over to Micah, but unfortunately, Skype doesn't work that way. So he agreed to send it through the mail. It was good, Papa!  Jacob is over his tonsillitis--yea!-- and has replaced that with a runny nose--blah. We are all looking forward to a visit from Grammy and Pop Pop Noden this week! Hopefully we can all stay healthy for that. I sent out the invitations for Micah's birthday party in two weeks, so I can't turn back! Hope I have the patience to deal with five little boys for a couple of hours! If not, I'll just feed them more cake ;-)

Getting Better

Jacob on Motrin!

Jacob is VERY sure he will be eating that cracker, yeah, yeah yeah.

Well, we're going on day 3 of up every hour or so at night. The doctor says it's viral tonsillitis so we just have to wait it out. It is fall break at Dan's school so he is able to stay home with him without having to cancel class, which is a big help. Jacob seems to be doing better. Last night, although he woke up quite a bit, it was not as hard because he was easier to get back to sleep, less agitated. We gave him Benedryl as the doctor suggested, so that helped him rest and I think he may not be having as much pain since he seemed to be drooling less and crying less at night. Motrin really hypes him up! In the first video you can see him playing a little peek-a-boo with Dan last night. On the Motrin he gets the best pain relief and even started eating crackers yesterday and this morning. This is an improvement over mostly just yogurt and bananas he's been eating the last couple of days. I'm hoping that we've turned the corner.

Mixed Feelings and a Very (Very) Early Morning

We had a rough night with Jacob last night, probably one of the hardest since he's passed infancy. His longest stretch of sleep was 1.5 hrs. This is after Tylenol and teething tablets, which brought about that one, blessed stretch and which is why I am still functioning this morning. And he only wanted mama, didn't want daddy to hold him at all. He just wanted to lay his head right up under my chin, hand cradling my throat where the vibrations of humming soothed his aches and pains. The other hand was stuffed in his mouth, the resulting drool soaking my shirt. In these moments when I'm tired and anxious, I sometimes resent the lack of sleep. But I fight that. From the moment we take our first breath to the moment we take our last, life is full of hard things. One of the great pleasures in life is to be held tightly in loving arms. Sometimes that's physical, sometimes spiritual. But that simple act can distract us from a world of pain. They say that if adults were to experience the same pain that teething babies do, we would be popping narcotics. The nighttime is always much worse. So I keep on rocking and hugging and humming and praying. I'm thankful that he seemed much better after breakfast and getting in the car to go to school. I know people who are dealing with much worse. Last night is a blessing in comparison. I have hope that tonight will be better, but if not, mama's late night consolation service will be open for business :-)

Pumpkin Day Recovery

 He looks like a natural!

 Jacob's one request was to see this pumpkin up close

 Micah helping 'lil bro touch the pumpkin

Playing games to win prizes

Micah's surgery to have ear tubes put in and his adenoids out was successful and he is recovering well. He was so good through the whole waiting period at the hospital and the new setting (I'm sure it helped that we were just there a few weeks ago with Jacob for his ear tubes). As we were in the staging area, he colored in his coloring book and we talked to the little girl and her mom who were waiting with us. He didn't even shed a tear! Although he had a rough time coming out of the anesthesia and we had to stay at the outpatient hospital an extra hour, he did fine after some anti-nausea medication. He just kept saying he wanted to go home. We thought he'd be really tired and sleep all afternoon, but after a nap in the car on the way home, he wasn't. Instead, we have been making efforts to keep him occupied with "quieter" activities since he's supposed to limit things for the next week. He enjoyed playing with his gifts from both grandparents and some from a friend from work. He still has had some soreness in his throat although he can eat normal foods, and had a fever on and off all weekend. We sent him to school this morning after some Tylenol for the low-grade fever. I called the on-call ENT doc on Sunday just to check and he assured us that this is all normal as the site scabs over in his palate, and it should resolve in a day or two. We made it through last night without him waking, so that was a good thing. Dan plans to pick him up early today so he can have extra time to recover at home. Plus, I feel bad having him at school all day when he can't participate in recess! All in all, he's been pretty normal except for some afternoon and early morning malaise.

Every year we go to Manchester Pumpkin Day, a little small-town festival with games/prizes for the kids, a country band, pony rides and a pumpkin patch. Although it was pretty cold, we bundled up and went on Saturday for about a half hour. Micah chose our pumpkin and played a few games before we decided to head home and warm up. We finally had to turn the heat on at the house, although you can see from the pictures that things are still pretty green around here. Micah was a little subdued, but he really wanted to go. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, Skyping with the grandparents and playing around the house.

Teamwork

                                                       "Ready for the season, coach!"

                                                "We're working our muscles...feel the burn!"

                                                           "We're building team spirit..."

                                                       "We're thinking about our next moves..."

                                                                    "and carbo-loading!"

There aren't too many dull days at the Inouye household, and this week was no exception. Jacob had a little fever virus on Thursday so I stayed home with him. He bounced back and was fine by Friday. This kind of thing is not uncommon at daycare, but I'm glad it didn't hang around. As you can see, it didn't affect his appetite any! He loves Cheerios right now and saw the box sitting open on the island. It didn't take long for him to figure out that if he could just knock it with his hand, it would fall over and all that goodness would be his. I was laughing too hard to be mad, so I snapped a couple of photos and some video of him enjoying a few handfuls with abandon before I swept the rest up. Jacob now says "more" when he wants more food and does the hand sign for "help" so that makes things a little easier when we are trying to figure out what he wants.

Micah has been reading books about pumpkins this week and wanted to make something pumpkin-y so we whipped up some pumpkin/chocolate chip cookies yesterday after church. They were delicious! It is just starting to get cool here and is finally feeling like fall. This weekend is Manchester Pumpkin Days, a small festival with a large pumpkin patch. We usually go to this every year so we can pick out the pumpkins for the front porch and Micah can ride the horse, play the games, etc. Since Micah is having surgery to get tubes and removed his adenoids this Friday, I don't know if we will get to go this year, but we will wait and see. We've decided to have a birthday party with a few friends this year, for Micah. In the past, we've just done the family thing, but this year he's been talking about having a real party with friends, etc., so we decided it's time. It will be Spider-Man themed, since he is really into that now. Well, say prayers and wish us good luck on Friday! We'll post and update after everything is done. Hopefully Micah will have much better hearing.

Deep Thoughts

                                         Getting the wiggles out


                                          Micahfish

                                        Me and my two favorite boys

                                            "Mom, all I see are spots...is that ok?"                                          

                                          "C'mon people, one more round and I've got a full house!"

This video showcases Jacob's climbing skills. I discovered that Jacob can now get himself up onto the rocker and then onto the bed unassisted. Good for his gross motor skills. Bad for mommy's sanity. Good thing there's carpet in his room! I wish I could have gotten the first tie he did this on camera. You should have heard that squeal of delight! He's also doing something else in this video that has become a favorite passtime--sampling tissues from around the house. Why he likes putting them in his mouth, I don't know. But I have picked more bits out of his mouth than I care to remember! He's getting the bottom molars now, so maybe that's it.

Micah received his first progress report from preschool this week and he is doing well in all areas and excelling in math concepts and communication skills! More importantly, he continues to enjoy it. His teacher put a note on there about how he is a joy to have in class :-) Last night we had an interesting discussion about heaven, a topic he has recently become fascinated with. It requires a little backstory. We had brought him into the service with us on Sunday and there is a large wooden cross hanging over the pulpit. Last night he asked me if that was the cross Jesus died on. Well, that's a logical conclusion for a preschooler, right? Of course I had to explain about that happening a long time ago, etc., and then about Jesus returning to heaven. He then gave me a puzzled look when I told him we were waiting for Jesus to return and take us to heaven with him. He said, "But Mama, did you know we are in heaven right now?" I tried to explain that, no, we are on Earth and heaven is another place. He said, "Well, God has us in his hand. (I had told him the verse about how no one is able to take us from God's hand--John 10:29). And God is in heaven. And no one can take us out of his hand. So we are in heaven, right now. Did you know that?" I thought about that for a minute. Now, I know that the Bible talks about Jesus coming again and how there will be a "new heaven and a new Earth". But it's easy to forget that the essence of heaven is being in the presence of God, all the time.The idea of gold streets and singing angels is pleasant and all, but to be honest, it's never really done much for me. But the thought of "knowing as I am fully known" and being near to God, letting go of pain, anxiety, all those things that we carry around down here, now that's heaven to me. But sometimes I forget that we can have pieces of that, right here, right now, if we remember that "no one is able to pluck us from his hand." God loves us and we can never be separated from that love. We can be in his presence. After a pause, I said, "I think that's kind of true, buddy." I am thankful to my son for pointing out that important truth in a new way to me. I know that sounds a little like a "Hallmark special", but it's that kind of moment you read about but you don't experience yourself all the time. It made me think that maybe I should do some more listening a little less talking sometimes! And now for another cute Jacob video :-)