Having had four daughters in a row, sons are a relatively new concept to me.  Tucking in my little boys, who both sleep in our bedroom, I realized how much the tables have turned and that, at least here, the boys out number the girls!  Maybe that doesn’t seem very newsworthy to most of you, but it was just very sweet to me!  I love my men, big and small.

Goodnight all.  Here’s where I’m going to cuddle up:

Oh, how good my Lord is to me!

Nathanael Edward

August 30, 2009

2:32 AM

7lbs 5oz    20in

Brought into the world safely by his heavenly Father, caught by his earthly father, loved by a very thankful family.  His name means “gift of God” —- and he certainly is!

My dad paced the summer kitchen, I mean kept the coffee coming, that evening.

Welcome, Son!

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord;

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;

They shall not be ashamed,

When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127: 3-5

My mommy told me that I have a Grannie and Pop that love me so much and would give anything to hug and kiss me right now, but I’m still in disbelief.

Mommy told me to smile for my Grannie because she was a little sad and I informed her that I was smiling—thank you very much!

She also told me to give her my best Pop look, so I tried this:

She thought that one was entirely too flattering and unrealistic so she promptly flipped me over and said this was more like it:

I don’t get it.

But I can’t wait to meet you,  Grannie and Pop.  I love you.  I wish I could sign my name or something but I don’t have one yet, except for baby boy.

Hi everybody!  Caleb here.  I’ve got some mighty exciting news to pass along.  You see, I’ve been the only boy in my family for pretty much all my life— but things were a lot different when I woke up Sunday morning!  There was this new, little boy hanging around!

See.  He says “hi.”  He sure does get a lot of attention, but that’s okay.  To tell you the truth, I could do with a lot less of the girly attention myself.  I’ve been able to get into a lot more really fun things since I’m not “the baby” anymore.  They really have no idea what all I’ve found to do!  Well, here’s some more pictures of him:

You know, it’s a funny thing, but this actually works for him:

I mean it!  When he screams they come running.  Well, they come running when I scream, too, but I don’t get fed or changed the way he does.  Oh, well, but just think of what all I can teach this new guy!  And I bet he’ll like tractors and mowers and dirt just as much as I do!  Sisters are pretty useful, but they have no taste in toys, you know.

Mommy says to tell you that she’ll have a new post with more information when she can drag a name out of my daddy.  She says he really has to look at a baby for a few days before he can come up with a suitable name and she’s trying really hard to be submissive patient in this area!

Well, gotta go.  It’s time for the boys to take over!

Head  on over here to see what all the fuss is about!

I love expecting a baby.  I love the kicks, the hiccups, the anticipation of what’s to come.  I love praying for my little one and sharing in the expectation with all of my children.  The wondering…

But I do not love belly pictures… of myself.

Other people?  Oh, beautiful!  Pregnant women are the most beautiful women in the world!

But not when it’s you.

You know those women who go have professional pictures taken of their BARE pregnant bellies?  Nuts.  Either that or they have way too much self esteem!

What I do have are dear family members far away that want to, you know, see how I’m doing (aka:   see just how humongous I’ve become).  So here it is.

After this picture was taken and I looked at it on the camera, I gave a little involuntary gasp and asked my Beloved, “Do I look this big in real life?”  To which he answered, “Um, well, …yeah.”  (Having no full length mirrors in the house really allows you to be in denial!)

See what I just did?  I put him into one of those positions that a loving wife should never do.  He would either have to LIE or pretty much affirm that I was fat.  Win-win situation, huh?

A few weeks ago, we took a trip to a local dairy and had a blast!  Customer apreciation days really rock!   It was the ultimate large family outing, if you know what I mean.  Everything was free, including lunch!  (And lunch was fantastic!–Barbecue!)  Plus all the free chocolate milk and ice cream you could hold.  We’re definitely putting this on the calendar for next year!

We’ve been so blessed with mild temperatures this summer.  Three days were right at 100 degrees, and that was a little rough, but the rest have been so very much better.  A few nights we even had record low temperatures– in the upper forties!  That certainly keeps your house cooled down!  I’ve told several people that this pleasant summer is all due to the Lord’s mercy upon me.  I think he knew I couldn’t make it without AC, being so pregnant, if we really had a heat wave!  Well, August is nearing the halfway mark and September usually starts cooling off, so I feel as though I’m in the home stretch!

Apparently….  this is not one of them.

So, guess what.  All day today, I’ve told my little boy happy birthday.  I’ve catered to his whims, waddled after him in the yard anywhere he wanted to go, fixed his favorite foods, and reminisced about the day he was born.  Sound pretty normal?  Well, guess what.

Today was not his birthday.

You read that right.

I’m so stinkin’ goofy.  Tell me it’s just the pregnant brain doing this to me.  Since last week, I’ve been off one day.  I’ve had it in my head all along that today, Wednesday, is the sixth— my only son’s birthday.  Well, at least I’m a day early, not a day late.  I really would have felt like a louse then.  Now I guess the real test of my mother’s sentimentality will be if I feel as warm and fuzzy toward my baby tomorrow as I have today.

His sisters don’t really understand.  So now Caleb gets TWO birthdays?  Maybe I should have just pretended that everyone celebrates two days when they turn two.  But only two.  Not when you turn nine or eleven or seven.  Nope, not then.

Oh, goodness.  I’m surprised he even made it to two years old.  His momma is so all together!

I’m absolutely smitten with my littlelest man.  I’m loved by many little people in my home, but there’s just something about the innoncence of this age that makes a little one completely blind to any of their mother’s faults and completlely adoring of the unworthy.  He loves me.  He really does.  And right at this moment he is my favorite little boy in the whole world!  Let me tell you some of my favorite Caleb stories!

Caleb loves to feel needed.  He loves to have a job.  Digging potatoes, riding on the tractor with his dad, going along at milking time– these are highlights of his day.  I wish I had a picture of the look on his face after he and his daddy  finish moving the chicken tractor in the evenings.  Josh will say something like, ” Mom, we got the chickens moved,” and his little face just beams with pride.  During a long car trip last week, Josh looked back at Caleb in his carseat and said, “Buddy, we’re going to have to move those chickens when we get home.”  I looked back to see a big grin on his face as he looked out the van window.  Josh is working on his perseverance, though.  Beloved informed me the day they were loading potatoes into buckets that Caleb just didn’t want to stick it out to the end and commenced to playing in the dirt after a while.  Being the soft-hearted Mommy, I objected, “Well, he’s not even two yet!  What do you expect?”  Josh said, “I don’t expect to wait until he’s older to start finishing his jobs.”

Caleb loves to give kisses.  Really loves to.  He can’t go more than a couple of feet away without coming to kiss me goodbye.  “Bye, Mama!”  He’ll say while tugging at my skirt.  If  I’m too busy to lean down for my kiss, or if it’s only been 15 seconds since my last one and I’m trying to ignore him and continue with whatever I’m doing he’ll tug again and say, “Mouth!”  to let me know I need to get down there and get what I have coming.  If he still gets ignored sometimes he’ll stamp his little foot and look at me like, “Woman! Don’t you know what you’re missing!”  At least that’s my interpretation.

Whenever a tractor comes down our road, which is quite frequently here, his eyes get wide and he runs for the nearest window.  Yesterday, Beloved was taking a little snooze in the bedroom when Caleb, hearing one of the “big ones” coming,  flies past me and runs to pounce on his daddy.  “Da-da!  Cracker!”  All I heard from his dad was, “Good grief, Caleb!”  I suppose Caleb thought it was pointless to inform a mere mother of the coming spectacle.  Only Da-da will do when motors are involved!

Caleb is quite fond of all his sisters, but none of them have his heart quite like Rachel.  She does take him to bed with her and get him water in the middle of the night if he asks and sing his bedtime song to get him back to sleep if he needs it.  Not to mention she takes him along to do the chicken chores many mornings.  What’s not to love, huh?  One of my very favorite early morning sites is Caleb perched atop the feedbox watching Rachel go about her work.

Rachel’s brother spoiling mission began quite early.  This picture was taken just days after she proclaimed that she did NOT want the new baby to be a boy.  We were a girl family and that was how it needed to stay.  Ye-ah.

Here he is last year on his first birthday.  Hasn’t he grown?

We will have no greater joy, son, than to hear that you walk in Truth!  We love you so very much, Big Boy!