4 Months Old

Joanna will be four months old tomorrow! She has rolled over onto her tummy twice, loves talking to herself in her mirror, can almost fit both hands in her mouth at once, and can turn herself 180 degrees in her crib. As far as her reactions to Phoebe, one moment she's crying (and sometimes screaming), because Phoebe's excitement scared her, and the next she is grinning and squealing. Phoebe loves her little sister and talks to her in a high-pitched "Mommy" voice, saying "Hi, Joanna" and "Bess oo, Joanna" when she sneezes. Click here for Joanna's three month pictures. Below is a picture of Phoebe at four months.

Got Milk?

Kingdom of Bounce with the Cousins

Another blessing of living in the Columbus area is that we are close to some of my (Val's) family. My third cousin Kristen, her husband Josh, and their daughter Kendal live about 15 minutes south of us. Kendal and Phoebe are developing a sweet little friendship. When Greg told Phoebe that we were going to spend time with Kendal today, she keep saying "Kendal!" with great enthusiasm. How are we related? Kendal and Phoebe's great great grandmother's name was Phoebe. Phoebe's two daughters (Viola and Mildred), are their great-grandmothers.

Today we spent time together at Kingdom of Bounce. For now, this is Phoebe's only visual for a kingdom. As we teach her about the Kingdom of God, I suppose we could start with the inflatable castles she bounced in today as an association, though I hope someday she will get to see the castles of Europe and other countries to have a grander picture. Of course none of these earthly kingdoms could compare with the present and future Kingdom of God.

Here are a few pictures from our fun. Both Mommies got a great workout from climbling and bouncing as well!

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Mark 10:13 - 15

 

Elfans

This is Phoebe's name for her favorite animal at her new favorite place...the Columbus Zoo! Any guesses? That's right, elephants! We've gotten to go twice in the past few weeks, once with Mimi and Deeda and yesterday with Nonnie. Some fun memories include Phoebe being afraid of the horses on the carousel, seeing the elephant named Pheobe, watching the kangaroos jump around as the zoo employee walked through them, seeing a Canadian goose charge its reflection in a door, watching a manatee touch its nose to the glass right infront of us, and of course, listening to Phoebe talk about everything she saw in her own special way. We were all amazed at how close the exhibits let you get to the animals. We could literally reach out and touch some of them, though for their best interest and ours, we didn't.

Here's a little list of animals we saw, in Phoebe-ese. See if you can guess what they are:

Mingos

Anga-oos

Pain-gins

Skirls

Ish

Elfans

I-no

I-ons

   

Blooms and Butterflies

I'm growing more and more fond of Columbus with each new place we discover. Today we (Pat, me and the girls) went to Franklin Park Conservatory, which was built in 1895. Throughout the conservatory are beautiful blown glass sculptures, and at 1 & 3 p.m. each day this Spring, they release newly "hatched" butterflies. We took a picnic lunch and ate on the grounds, surrounded by multitudes of beautiful tulips and fragrant lilac bushes, and Phoebe got to see some of the butterflies up close. How varied and lovely is God's creation! Can you find the butterfly in the second picture?

3 Months Old!

Here's our little beauty at 3 months. Joanna is cooing, smiling, kicking, squealing, grabbing her toes, losing her hair, and sleeping through the night! Here she is in one of Phoebe's outfits.

Look at her at 2 months to see the changes, and here's Phoebe at three months...

Baaaaaaaa!

Phoebe and I went to the Slate Run Historical Farm last Thursday. It's a free park with animals and it's operated as farms were in the 1880's. Our goal was to see the sheep, as we were preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb of God this past Sunday. Phoebe bravely watched the sheep from a little platform in the barn. However, immediately after I took the picture below, the sheep bleated so loudly that it sent a scared Phoebe into my arms shaking. Fortunately the other children thought the sheep's cry was funny, so Phoebe saw that it was nothing to be afraid of. She also got to watch a sheep being sheared (an image that was helpful for Mommy to understand the verses from Isaiah below), and was brave enough to touch the wet little snout of a baby pig.

 

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Isaiah 53:6-7