A rough week for Keziah

Don't let this innocent face fool you!


Keziah has been bruised and battered this week - mostly by the hands of her older brother. The transition to crawling has made Keziah a lot happier, but unfortunately it has made Micah a lot un-happier! He sees her coming from across the room and starts screaming at her, ramming her, crawling on top of her, hitting her... You get the picture. He likes to hug her really roughly or roll on top of her. I know he doesn't do it out of a kind heart, he does it because teasing her like this gets a reaction. From me and from Keziah. And Keziah is SO over-dramatic. She'll start wailing even if he barely touches her. No wonder teasing her is so satisfying for Micah. They remind me of a cat and dog we used to have - Spunky (the dog) would chase and tease Fluff (yep, that's the cat) and she would get SO mad at him. Spunky always had this satisfied look on his face until Fluff got him with her claws or something... I'm secretly hoping Keziah will learn to defend herself soon.

Here's Micah "playing" with Keziah. I know that look in his eye already when he starts heading towards her...

Here Micah is using her head as a drum for his balloons. She thought it was fun until he started playing double-time...

One day earlier in the week Micah got angry with her about something and pushed her down when she was sitting on her knees. She hit her head on the bottom edge of a cabinet and smashed her face into the laminate floor. She wailed like mad but I couldn't see any damage initially. It wasn't until half an hour later that I thought she was smiling kind of funny. Sure enough her lip had started to swell.

I tried to capture her wounds on camera but the pictures don't really do them justice. The first picture shows where Keziah's head met the cabinet and the second one shows off her fat lip.

I'm not sure what to do with him. I feel like this is what I sound like all day, "Micah, Micah! Micah stop! Micah leave her alone! Micah stop rolling on top of her! Micah - she doesn't like that!" I've talked to him about how when Keziah cries, that's her way of saying, "this doesn't feel good, please stop!" We use the naughty corner quite consistently and spankings occasionally and taking away privileges. What else can I do?

Micah in the "naughty corner":


I remember someone comparing children to puppies (sorry for another animal comparison) - that they need to be trained how to behave. It's interesting to see that even at that young age, our natural instincts are to only look out for ourselves. It helps to think of Micah's behaviour as a lack of self-control and so I'm praying that our consistent discipline will eventually help him learn good behaviour. But some days it feels like we're getting nowhere!


Keziah's rough week didn't end there. Last night Erik had the kids upstairs at Grandma & Grandpa's house when Keziah fell into the edge of a bookshelf. Her head immediately started to swell to a red golfball size lump on her forehead. It looked so awful! I didn't take a picture of it at its worst last night, but I took one this morning. There's still a bit of a lump and a large bruise is forming... (You can also see her cute little tooth in this picture :)


Now we're looking ahead to a full weekend. Erik has an early hockey game tonight which means that I might actually be able to take Micah. And my parents are expected to arrive sometime this weekend from Manitoba so I need to get the house in order!

Sunny Sunday

It is a beautiful day in Abbotsford. Erik gave me a nice break by taking the kids outside to play this afternoon. I went out at one point to snap a few pictures.


Erik is saying good-bye to his truck and putting it up for sale. It's not really a sad good-bye though since he will soon be driving around a company truck which is much newer and much more reliable! His job is going amazingly well and the father-son team that he works for treat him like gold. Erik will have to take off the Toews Home Builder decals on the truck which is a little bit sad. If things continue to go well with this new job, he may end up dissolving his business altogether.

Me and the kids - it's SO hard to get a good picture with TWO squirmy participants so this one isn't actually too bad :)


Hurry and take the picture before she pulls my hair...!

Our animated 10-month old. I can relate to Heather's attempt at taking 10-month baby pictures!

Micah lounging on the grass...

Home

This has been a week of sickness. First it was Micah, then yesterday Keziah joined the ranks and today I feel lousy too. Just a cold, but still no fun. Keziah is a demanding baby at the best of times, but yesterday my arms ached from holding her. It took me ALL afternoon to make a salad and get myself showered and ready for our care group potluck in the evening. I had to do everything in stages between holding Keziah, entertaining Keziah, trying to feed Keziah, trying to get Keziah to go to sleep... Later in the evening the kids were asleep and I accomplished more in one hour than I had all day. At least my kitchen was clean when I went to bed. I hate waking up to a dirty kitchen.

Here's a montage of Keziah the other night before her bath. Pictures like this make me glad to have a privatized blog for the freedom to post her cute little baby bum...



Hmmm, what's in here?

Oh, hey mom.

Am I sitting on something?

I love you!













Micah loves being naked too. And apparently he aspires to be a circus act...




















Life continues in a forward motion. Sometimes I fool myself into thinking that if I can keep busy and put time between myself and Nathan's death, that it will feel better. But we can't escape grief. It is with us no matter where we go or what we do. But I have found some comfort in reading Randy Alcorn's book entitled Heaven. It has given me a longing for my eternal home that I have never before experienced as I begin to imagine what it will actually be like. Alcorn believes the Bible gives proof that there is a present Heaven where all believers go when they die, but that our final and eternal home will be the New Earth - which isn't in some distant dimension somewhere, it's right here on our present Earth - fully restored and perfect. He also points out many passages that say our earthly bodies will also be resurrected and restored. The goal being that we will live just as God had intended for us back when he created the earth and the beautiful garden of Eden. Here's a quote from his book:

"God has never given up on his original creation. Yet somehow we've managed to overlook an entire biblical vocabulary that makes this point clear. Reconcile. Redeem. Restore. Recover. Return. Renew. Regenerate. Resurrect... These words emphasize that God always sees us in light of what he intended us to be, and he always seeks to restore us to that design. Likewise, he sees the earth in terms of what he intended it to be, and he seeks to restore it to its original design."

God isn't about throwing away the old and making something new - he is about restoration! I was reminded of the passage from Romans 8 that talks about creation being "liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (v. 21). Suddenly heaven doesn't feel so distant and strange and ethereal. It's a real place that we can see and taste and touch! Where people never die or get in accidents, where there is no sickness or need for a doctor, where there is no nasty cold virus! I haven't stopped thinking about Heaven since I started this book and I can honestly say for the first time that I'm anxious to get there. As much as this present Earth can feel like home, there is a place that was tailor-made for us and will be our perfect home:

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
Philippians 3:21


Homesick - by Mercy Me

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbyes
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Pictures - Part 2

I just uploaded the pictures from my camera and found a few more from the weekend...

Caleb konked out after a bottle:

Micah had his first day of KidsQuest on Sunday morning - the "Sunday School" for kids that happens during the service. Micah loved it! Erik went with him for the first time but we hope that he will soon be going on his own. We left Keziah in the nursery for the first time all by herself and are crossing our fingers that Erik and I may actually be able to sit through a whole church service together for the first time since... well, I don't even remember.

Here's Micah showing off his KidsQuest crafts and name tag:

Keziah's tongue seems to be always sticking out of her mouth these days. I think she likes the feeling of running it over her smooth bottom tooth :)

Our Week in Pictures

We had what was probably the last of the hot weather last week. Perfect afternoons for the kiddie pool…

Keziah observing from the sidelines.

Just in case my blog gives the impression that my kids are always happy and content, here is more of a true-life picture of Micah (post sunscreen application)...

And, of course, our darling Keziah:

But this makes it all worth it :)

A photo shoot of Keziah one evening in the outfit that her Great-Grandma Wiebe made for her:

Kelly & Taeya joined us one afternoon and we put the girls in their matching brown dresses for some pictures.

Micah climbed into Keziah's crib the other morning and found one of her nukies. The serene look in his eyes told me that he remembered - and still longed for - its soothing effect.

Sure enough, later that morning Micah was unusually quiet and I found him here:

Fall colours on a misty morning.

Micah with his Lightening McQueen car that Uncle Nathan gave him.

Keziah posing for the camera.

Daddy cuddling with the kids after a day of golfing.

Remembering

To start off, some pictures of the kids from our church picnic this past Sunday. It has been HOT here this week...

Micah getting ready for the egg-in-spoon race.

Micah and Erik "racing" to the finish line.

Face Painting - Side one:

Side two:

Keziah eating grass... :)

Blogging hasn't come easily lately. Posting pictures of the kids is my default because I don't really know what to write about these days. Talking about the regular happenings of my days seems trivial and unimportant. Reading Elissa's post today just made it all real to me yet again - what our family is going through and the way our lives have all been changed forever. So, my heart feels heavy this morning knowing that this journey is far from being complete. For me, there are many moments of "normal" life. My kids and routine distract me from what's going on around me. But it doesn't change the reality of what's happening. Elissa talks about the physical scars that will always serve as a reminder for her, but we know that we have all been scarred. It is only because we loved Nathan so much that we are so affected by his death...