My Katie is 2, Wow!

My Katie is growing up! 2 years old. Wow! She has entered toddler realm full steam! First Sunday she didn't run to me when I came to her Sunday School class. She said "hi, daddy", and continued playing. Not sure Daddy is ready for that yet!LOL!

We had a quiet family birthday supper, we opened presents. She loved spending time with each gift, rather than running on to the next one, that was nice, did make for a long time of gift opening(not that there was that many gifts, she just enjoyed each one! Mommy made a chocolate cake in a "K" shape, which was enjoyed. Julia wanted some but she will just have to wait until she is one!

Next weekend is the big bash with friends and family, Doodlebop theme. I was excited that I found some party stuff in that theme. Should be fun!
Got this in an email, it has some truth to it!

TODDLER RULES
If it is on, I must turn it off.
If it is off, I must turn it on.
If it is folded, I must unfold it.
If it is a liquid, it must be shaken, then spilled.
If it a solid, it must be crumbled, chewed or smeared.
If it is high, it must be reached.
If it is shelved, it must be unshelved.
If it is pointed, it must be run with at top speed.
If it has leaves, they must be picked.
If it is plugged, it must be unplugged.
If it is not trash, it must be thrown away.
If it is in the trash, it must be removed, inspected, and thrown on the floor.
If it is closed, it must be opened.
If it does not open, it must be screamed at.
If it has drawers, they must be rifled.
If it is a pencil, it must write on the refrigerator, monitor, or table.
If it is full, it will be more interesting emptied.
If it is empty, it will be more interesting full.
If it is a pile of dirt, it must be laid upon.
If it is stroller, it must under no circumstances be ridden in without protest. It must be pushed by me instead.
If it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.
If Mommy's hands are full, I must be carried.
If Mommy is in a hurry and wants to carry me, I must walk alone.
If it is paper, it must be torn.
If it has buttons, they must be pressed.
If the volume is low, it must go high.
If it is toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.
If it is a drawer, it must be pulled upon.
If it is a toothbrush, it must be inserted into my mouth.
If it has a faucet, it must be turned on at full force.
If it is a phone, I must talk to it.
If it is a bug, it must be swallowed.
If it doesn't stay on my spoon, it must be dropped on the floor.
If it is not food, it must be tasted.
If it IS food, it must not be tasted.
If it is dry, it must be made wet with drool, milk, or toilet water.
If it is a carseat, it must be protested with arched back.
If it is Mommy, it must be hugged. I am toddler!

Some Julia time...

Cara and Katie are still battling a cold, so I decided to take Julia to church myself today. So I strapped her into the Snugglie and away we went. I was teaching the grade 1-4 and had a magic trick to share with them also.Needless to say I never practiced storytelling or this trick with a baby strapped to me, but it still went okay thankfully.

She napped part way through. :)

We then made it into church for the service, but missed the sermon as she started getting a bit too vocal... it was sure nice to spend some one on one time with her, I am missing that, so today was a nice blessing.

Look back- off the plane in Canada with Julia

I realize I take video of crazy mundane stuff, with a few clips of brilliance. Shaking my head over some of the stuff I taped(ie the diaper blowout as we left China)...Julia is soooo gonna dislike daddy when we go through the videos one day lol!!!

Nanchang memory

This was in Nanchang,at the Teng Wang Pavilion. The dance that was to happen there was canceled due to the stage flooding, but this was, to me, my favorite/most memorable time(outside of getting Julia).

It has been like a month and a half and it has been wonderful. Last night mommy went out for some girl time and Katie went to bed well, so I had a couple of uninterrupted hours with my Julia. Sorely needed(for me much more than Julia!). Love being able to make her smile, to see her stare into my eyes. She loves to touch foreheads together and rub my beard. She is certainly working her way towards crawling, she has pushed herself,while on her tummy, backwards a couple feet, quite happily. She is done with the chest cold she got, and no one seems to be teething today, so stock prices of Kleenex may dip a bit today, and I am good with that!

I am sad that there hasn't been the time to go through even the pictures and video I have taken, nor to connect very much with the travel group, other than the odd email. We will hopefully correct that in the next little bit. I find myself thinking more and more about the amazing treasures we all got while in China and wondering how they are all doing.

Well, work is calling(more like screaming)...so off to it I go! gonna knock a bunch off the ol' to do list, oh yes I am!

The Grace of God- Andy Stanley Book Review

There is always a fear when the topic of grace gets mentioned that there is no balance and inclusion of human responsibility for sin, so the topic and experience of grace gets ignored. I have read many good and bad books on grace, Andy Stanley...GOOD book!

Balance is maintained, and a concept that is nearly as large as God Himself is given thorough treatment. "Grace acknowledges the full implication of sin and yet does not condemn". From the first book of the Bible through to the end he uses powerful examples from it and the examples encourage, edify, and empower the reader.

I also like the use of bolding in the book to accent key principles. This accenting is not done in a typical point by point heading, but conversationally, which makes it an easy read to digest a FULL meal of content.

There is no study guide at the back of the book, but this shouldn't deter this book from being used in a small group setting. There is a wealth of discussion points that could be brought out, BUT I caution, one really has to answer personally and share from your life, you can't embrace this topic of grace in theory, this is real life stuff!

This isn't a complaint, but because the writing style flows so smoothly, it could make it hard to stop, park, and really process the points, and thus miss the meat of it, so as a reader, I would encourage you to take it in bite size portions and really chew on it. The path of grace is a journey and so it really is about enjoying and experiencing it along the way.This coming from a destination minded person! High recommendation.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Mockingbird Parables- Matt Litton

This book is based off a knowledge of"To Kill a Mockingbird". Now I had not read or seen any movie variations of To Kill a Mockingbird, but the one thing this book has done is make me want to. Sadly that is about all I can say as positive.

Obviously a working knowledge of To Kill would help, but the author gives enough detail of the story points he is building off that this was not a hindrance, but the flopping all over the place made it hard to follow and glean what he was trying to say. I would agree with him that To Kill has some great learning points, and all, but it was more like a hummingbird, quick flitting here and there. Rather than a book it seems more like a short hand diary of some of his thoughts on the story and those thoughts just seemed to point out the obvious, rather than ADD something to us the reader of THIS book.

There is a SHORT question guide at the back for folks to use in a discussion group. Some may find that useful, but I would suggest that simply reading or watching To Kill a Mockingbird and talking about it with friends would be more profitable use of time.

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or ARC.

Update

Well, Happy New year to all.
Things have been full but awesome(overall) since returning home. We had a nice time with family over the holidays, and have settled in now to try to establish some routines.

Katie was ultra clingy and moody for the first couple weeks since returning, from missing us, to adjusting to Julia, to her cutting a bunch of teeth, it isn't surprising. Julia also cut another tooth. So the drool, tears, fevers, and runs have been flowing, but we seem to be in a lull now which is nice.

Julia is back to a better eating schedule, really enjoying the purees, so much so she is too full to finish a bottle, so that is nice. Sleeping has been an adjustment. For the first few days I took Katie to the basement and we slept there, as the girls were taking turns waking each other up with dealing with their teething stuff, and Julia was taking up half of the bed, so no room for me there anyhow.

We are now on a better schedule, although Julia still stays up later, 10 pm ish, prior to falling asleep, Cara is often having to lay with her to get her down, but it is going well, other than her wanting a 5 pm nap, that time isn't cool.So we are trying to work her thru that, and overall happy with that, still some tweaking to go, but all in good time.

Took the girls to the pet store today, Julia slept the whole time, oh well.

Been busy at work, having to preach the last 2 Sundays, have my first Masters level class starting in a couple weeks, and am working on some stuff for Focus on the Family, as part of an adoption/orphan care initiatives they are working on. Booked at couple shows for the next month, which was a surprise, it is usually pretty dead, but that is nice bonus. Still have a bunch of video and pictures to look at from the trip and really want to connect with some of the folks from our travel group to see how the kids are adjusting.

Still haven't gotten Julia to church yet, may or may not happen this Sunday. I will be bringing my Katie as Sunday School is starting up again. We have kicked things up a notch with her, as I have taken her out a bunch to give Mum a break. We have had lots of daddy/daughter adventures, she has started rinsing the dishes, helping daddy go grocery shopping, having spontaneous dance parties in the mall when we hear a good tune coming from a store. I figure folks look at us anyhow with Ultrawhite Boy and his sidekick Afro-girl, so may as well just have fun.She loves to dance, so why not bust a groove at the mall, she loves it, and I love making my girl smile so it is a blast.

We have been blessed to have meals provided for us this last week from friends of ours from the church, it is so nice to not have to add that to the list while we adjust to other stuff, a real blessing.

The girls can't get enough of each other, Julia follows Katie with her eyes everywhere she goes. Katie loves hugging and kissing her, too much and too strong, but that is better than her hating her.

Katie has started calling us Da da and Mama. Not sure where that came from ,she has always called us daddy or mommy, it is cute though.

Had a HUGE dump of snow, light fluffy but lots of it. Julia is NOT fond of the car seat in the car, that is a big adjustment that needs to happen. Cara has a bit of cabin fever, she is pretty house bound, and when she does get out, usually only for an hour or so, as one of the girls ends up crashing and needing to get home.

It is great being home. I do feel that I haven't gotten the same time with Julia as I would like, from working with or distracting Katie, or still giving Cara the main areas of attachment to work on with Julia,that is hard, but it fills my heart and makes it so worth it when I see her seeking Cara out and seeing her eyes light up when she sees her mommy that I know once that bond is deep, I will be able to win over Julia to becoming a daddy's girl like Katie has become, and that makes it all worth it.

I was kissed by a cute Asian girl, and my wife was okay with it....

I am obviously talking about my Julia. Last night we were sitting on the couch, waiting for Julia to get tired enough to go to bed, and I am holding her up(she is getting stronger, she likes trying to stand, brings a big smile to her face) and she opens her mouth into a cute little circle and moves forward and presses them against my mouth. Now if it had just happened that one time I would attribute it to a lack of balance, but she did it another 3-4 times. Needless to say, I was a teary mess, all while trying to keep a normal face in front of her, so she didn't think something was wrong(my face gets all scrunchy and flushed when I cry- not a pretty sight LOL).

This morning the girls are sitting at the table and Julia has hiccups, so what does Katie do? She starts imitating the sound, making Julia start giggling and cracking up the whole table.Such fun(although neither girl got much breakfast into them, fun was had by all)!

We had a nice visit with my mom who came up with my cousin for a few days to celebrate Christmas and get to know Julia a bit. We are laying low for New Years(especially after a short sleep night last night, Julia took forever to go down and then Katie was awake at 4 due to her fever going up a bit, she had it yesterday and within 4 hours we knocked it down and she was running around. Hopefully everyone will normalize soon.

Katie is a good big sister, a little possessive of us at times, but LOVES her Julia and it is mutual.Julia's eyes light up and follow her big sis everywhere. We are so thankful to my sister and brother in law for looking after Katie, they did such a great job. Katie is clingy(not surprising). Gonna be hard when Daddy has to go to work next week, for both Katie and me!

First family outing today. The four of us are going to do a bit of grocery shopping. Weather is COLD, but Cara needs to get out and Grande Prairie needs to get used to the Burtis' clan invading their world LOL!

Crazy times

Got back, the flights were easy(other than Julia blew her diaper right as we took off with diarrhea), but she is doing well, overall. She has an irritation on one of her cheeks/eye, not sure what that is. I ended up sleeping decently on the 23rd, then stayed up(not my choice, the body and brain wouldn't shut down) the entire next night and day, but that seemed to reset my sleep pattern, and got my Jan 2 sermon done in the wee hours of Christmas day morning. Caught the 24 hour stomach bug once home, but one advantage of having a high metabolism/hyper bowel, is that bug didn't have a chance,  12 or so hours and it was gone. Yahoo. Had great time with family for holidays, still absorbing the China time, will  hopefully have time in early 2011 to reflect on it. Met great folks, enjoyed our travel group, have and treasure of a new daughter...

In Vancouver!!!

We made it! Flight went quick, got thru the immigration and custom hoops with NO problem, our Girl is now home and a Canadian citizen!

We catch a flight to Edmonton in an hour. Julia is doing great, despite still having the runs a bit, but she is also absorbing some of her bottle and cereal, so it will be good to get home, bath, clean clothes and try to sleep!