January/February

We have been somewhat busy this past month.  Wyatt got to spend some time with Cordie (3) and Pemberly (9) as I watched the girls some to help out their family.  He enjoys playing with Cordie (although they fight some, being only 2 and 3).  He also just adores Pemberly.  He gets very excited when he wakes up from his nap to find out it is time to go pick up Pemberly at school.  She made up a game with the lovely title of "barf."  This game involves both of them on the trampoline and Pemberly bouncing him on it as he holds onto the handle; then he pretends to "barf" by spitting out his pacifier (which he still calls his "appy appy").  What the allure to this game is I have no idea - but they sure do enjoy it.  They also sometimes play school and Wyatt will count and sing his ABCs along with various other "school" activities.  It is very sweet to see them play together (and gives me a chance to start preparing dinner or do some housework since I don't have to facilitate any disagreements between them).

Wyatt is looking forward to meeting baby sister.  Sometimes he asks about holding her and I tell him we can hold her when she is done growing and comes out.  He likes to kiss my belly and blow on my belly, as well as hug and pat my belly.  I can't wait to see what a great big brother he is going to be!  It will also be interesting to see how he transitions from being the only child to the big brother.  Helen Joy seems to be doing very well.  She has about five more weeks of growing if she comes on her due date.  I already have our home birth kit (I ordered it on a Tuesday and it came on Thursday - that was super fast!).  I have also bought the few other items needed for our planned home birth.  I've washed all the newborn sized clothes and the bedding.  We still need to get the bassinet out of the shed and set it up, as well as the other baby items such as the carseat and infant seat, but we are definitely getting ready to meet our baby girl.  Mom and Dad got us a double jogging stroller/bike trailer for Christmas - which has already come in handy to take Wyatt and Cordie in when I would walk to pick up Pemberly after school.  They also gave us the other double stroller I wanted (a sit and stand) but I haven't gotten around to assembling it yet.  So there are still several things to be done before Helen comes.

Ok - it has been four weeks since I wrote that (since we are now one week away from due date).  We are ready for baby girl!  At the last minute we even got a ton of baby clothes to borrow from my sisters-in-law.  Helen Joy will be very well clothed for at least the first 18 months of her life!  There were a lot of clothes to go through, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to use them.

I have a few random things about Wyatt that I have been meaning to blog about - so here goes:

Wyatt told his first lie :(  He threw a toy and Justin asked him if he threw it.  Wyatt said no, so Justin asked him how did it get over there.  Wyatt said, "the car" (the toy was beside his car).  Oh boy - I hope he doesn't  get any better at lying for a long time.  He had to go to timeout for lying and lost the privilege of playing with that toy for the evening since he threw it.  Wyatt has started throwing toys when he gets frustrated, so that is something we are working on.

2-4-2013 Wyatt cleaned up his outside toys all by himself without being told!  He told me he was done playing outside and I said, okay you need to clean up first, but when I went out there he had already cleaned them up.  I only had to point out one or two items he had missed.  Such a proud moment!

2-14-2013  This week of Valentine's Wyatt started requesting to read out of his little bible at night instead of his story bible that has pictures.  His little bible is just a tiny NIV New Testament.  Justin chose to read from I Corinthians 13.  Well, after a day or two of hearing that passage Wyatt decided he wanted to "read all by self."  He then proceeded to "find a good one" as we say when looking for a story and quoted "always trusts, always hopes, always (I supplied perseveres), love never fails!"  Since then he has continued to ask us to read about "love never fails" every night and he quotes part of the passage every night.  He doesn't say the exact same thing each time, but remembers different parts sometimes.  Some nights he talks about love is patient, love is kind - other nights about love keeps no record of wrongs, love does not delight in evil, etc.  It is so exciting to hear our son quoting from God's word already!  We sure hope that this a tradition he continues to be interested in.  If I can get him off the I Corinthians passage at some point I think we will move to the fruit of the spirit passage from Galatians 5.

In other news, I will probably not post any more blogs until baby girl makes her debut.  That one should include some pictures!  I do have to say how thankful I am to various friends like Shelby, Christine, and Tara who have helped watch Wyatt over these past few weeks so I could rest or get things done.  Thank you guys so much for your help!  Wyatt loves to play with your boys.