Family News

Natasha asked Jesus into her heart today.
The conversation started while we were making pitas for dinner. She was talking about heaven, how she wanted to go there, and how she’d see Great-grandma there, “and meet Grandma Teena’s daddy.”
I asked her how she could get to heaven. “Ask Jesus into my heart.” (This [...]

Shadow started retrieving this afternoon.
She progressed from simply chasing a ball (which she wasn’t doing three days ago) to picking it up, to carrying it around, and eventually to bringing it back near me (to me is a little more precise than she’s yet mastered).
Have I mentioned Elisha can throw now? About a foot. [...]

Well, it’s been nearly a week and Shadow is finding a rhythm.
She has perked up a bit and shown more interest in exercise and the world around her. She’s also begun playing with her toys– mouthing some rings and tossing a soft ball around. No “serious” chewing since I gave her the knuckle [...]

Jay expressed concern about his fitness level while he was gone, highlighting in particular the hip that seemed inflamed the morning after a brisk, 2-hour walk.
I pitied him, but attributed it (in part, at least) to his sedentary job. Mine keeps me moving enough I shouldn’t run into that stiffness problem myself.
Ha.
Two days ago [...]

I’ve started this post four or five times, and it keeps being more of a laundry-list than anything else.
But:
I now have my dog.
She isn’t vizsla (though she does have the compact, muscular body with the short hair– dark brown instead of russet), and she isn’t a Brittany (though she is that size and already proving [...]

The girls were watching me get dressed this morning and Natasha said, with some surprise:
“Your baby tummy is gone! What happened to your baby tummy?”
What I would call my baby tummy is not gone, but I felt such a sweetness from the comment, drawing as it did the direct connection between baby and [...]

Well, Elisha turned 1 Monday.
We had a little party for him– my parents and a couple friends over for dinner.
Afterwards we stripped Elisha down to his diaper and gave him his bowl of cake and ice cream. He had his first spoon, too, and knew exacly how to use it (he was surprisingly dexterous) breaking [...]