Day Seven - Much Better!

I knew I was having a better day today; but when I found myself singing "Skip to My Lou" aloud for all the neighborhood to hear while we were feeding the calves this evening, I realized how high my happiness level had gotten. :) Whew, one day like yesterday is enough for a long while!

The big event of the morning was a trip to the dentist, dear Dr. Greene (who was my dentist when I was a girl), for Josiah. My boys actually love going to the dentist. For example, David was disappointed that he only got to go to the waiting room today and didn't get to go back into the rest of the office to have his teeth checked. And Josiah is truly excited about the fact that he gets to return to the dentist next week to have a small cavity filled. Between this dental practice's extremely good manner with children and our own bit of brainwashing, our boys think a visit to the dentist is grand! :) All three boys were so well-behaved in the dentist's office; I don't think they could have done any better, which was quite a boost to my parenting confidence after last night's trouncing of it!

In any case, it got the day off to a good start which was enhanced even more by our visit to Gift & Thrift to donate some stuff and buy some other stuff. This is how it is--we have a revolving-door policy with Gift & Thrift, a true give-and-take relationship. And the best part? It's all for a good cause. That's what Mother and I tell Dad, anyway. :)

We happened to see a few people we know while we were there; and the day brightened even more by conversations with them. Thanks, Diane, Becky, and Jenny!

After we got home, my neighbor Wilma called and asked if we could keep her youngest daughter Wanita this afternoon while Wilma took the other girls to the doctor. Of course we could, so Wanita spent a few hours with us which passed pleasantly with lots of story-reading and other forms of entertainment.

While she was here, David got a hold of her bonnet which she had laid aside when she came in; and not being content to simply admire it in his hands, he had to try it on which made us all laugh. :)

~ let's see, I know they do something with these strings...wonder if I can do it like they do?
~ well, how do I look???

Speaking of laughing, my dad made us all roar tonight when he tried on a mask that Josiah made during VBS. My dad is usually fairly dignified, so I'm not sure what he was thinking when he did this uncharacteristic action. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for him), I happened to have my camera handy; and before he knew what was going on, I had taken a picture of him. As soon as the flash went off (this pic was too important to me to try to capture it with natural light!), he realized his error...but it was too late. He knew instantly that this picture would end up on the blog; and obviously I wouldn't want to disappoint him! ;)

What I really love about this picture though is that David is so happy to see Grandpa with the mask. It's a tough job to entertain grandkids, but somebody's gotta do it!

~ am I cool or what? maybe I can wear this while I see some patients tomorrow in the office!

The history-making part of the day came this evening when I fed some real food to Tobin for the first time! Yummy rice cereal--everyone's favorite. ;) Tobin will be 6 months in a few days, so it was definitely time...and oh my, he sure gobbled it up! He was obviously very ready for this. It reminded me of when Josiah turned 4 months, the earliest age when it was OK to give him solids without the baby food police showing up at the door. I eagerly fed him rice cereal, but he didn't receive it quite as enthusiastically as Tobin did tonight! With David, we waited until he was 5 and 1/2 months; and I think he did OK with it. Notice how the ages kept getting older before we fed them solids. With Josiah, I thought, "This is going to be so much fun to feed him; I can hardly wait!" With Tobin, I'm thinking, "It's actually easier to just nurse him because the milk is always ready and I can do something else (like read to myself or to the boys) at the same time so let's just wait on real food." However, seeing how eager Tobin was to eat tonight made me realize that it's going to be a lot of fun to feed him, too. My hungry little birdie. :)

~ we do have a highchair, but it's a cheap one that doesn't give good support for this age of baby at all...Tobin slouches over and practically gets lost in it, so for tonight it was just simpler to feed him in his bouncy seat...I miss the really nice highchair we had when Josiah was a baby
~ the only hard part about feeding Tobin this evening was that he kept putting his thumb in his mouth between bites, so I had to try to hold his hand down while also holding the container of rice cereal and feeding him at the same time

By far, the best surprise of the day was when I went into Josiah and David's room a few minutes after tucking them in and yelled, "Surprise!!! Pajama ride! Come on; get in the minivan. Here we go!" They had no idea what was going on because this was our first ever pajama ride...but certainly not our last (many thanks to Renee for this idea). I really should have been taking a video when I did it to capture that moment since it was especially delightful to see Josiah (Mr. Command Man) so completely caught off guard and clueless about what was going on. :)

I didn't tell them where we were going, and it wasn't until we saw this lovely sign... ...and pulled into the parking lot of my favorite ice cream place that they knew our destination. Jeff and I had each been given a gift certificate for free ice cream as a thank-you for our help with VBS so I used those and didn't have to spend a dime (except gas money, but let's not think about that) to create this special memory for the boys. For the first time, Josiah got a cone at Kline's and did a pretty good job of keeping up with the melting ice cream; only once did I have to rescue him and lick some of it up before it got too far ahead of him--tough job. :) David and I shared a cup of chocolate (my current favorite ice cream, edging out my long-time favorite, Breyer's mint chocolate chip); and I sat on the floor of the minivan where I had removed a seat and doled out bites: "one for you, one for me."
Tobin just watched and didn't get to have any, although David didn't really understand why we didn't share with him, too! :)
And then, on the way home, we got to watch a spectacular sunset, a sight that I never get tired of or lose my admiration for. My sons thought I was crazy when I got them out of bed for a pajama ride, but they really thought I'd lost it when I kept pulling off the road on the way home to take pictures of the sunset. :)

~ the building of West Side Baptist Church silhouetted against the sunset
~ the sunset from Mountain View Elementary School

Despite the sugar they had just consumed, Josiah and David fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow; and I haven't heard a peep out of them since!

Another highlight of the day was continued email communication with Jeff, including pictures! of him!!! :) In the first picture, he's with Eric Trinka, the leader of their group; and in the second picture, he's inside the Church of the Assumption, built to commemorate the spot where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would give birth to a son who would save His people from their sins.

Jeff wrote that the day went well, and that he drank a lot of coffee this morning. Think there's a connection? He also wrote that the work on the mikvah was not so bad, especially because he was the "go get" boy for the guys who were really working. Tomorrow he will attend a wedding with his host family which I'm sure will be an extremely interesting cultural experience. We've seen/participated in some Jewish weddings; but unless my memory is failing, I don't recall an Arab wedding that we've been a part of. I wish I could zap myself over to the Middle East and go to the wedding with him!

Last, the Israel picture of the day...the pointed hill behind me that looks like a camel's hump is the site of an ancient city named Gamla (obviously related to the word "gamal" for camel). If I'm not mistaken, the synagogue ruins here are perhaps the oldest in the world? (I'm sure Jeff will correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.) :) The significant aspect of this site, however, is that it is where Jeff prayed specifically for God to give me to him as his wife. This was back in 1996 when it looked like everything was against our relationship and only a miracle would make his prayer come true. Thank God for miracles! :) This picture was taken during my first visit to the site; and since I was 8 months pregnant with our second son and we had 8 years of marriage under our belt, it was obvious that Jeff's prayer had been answered with a resounding YES!
Now, if you want to see some awesome (and I'm not using that term lightly...it's truly awe-inspiring) photography from the Middle East, go check out this site. Jeff emailed briefly to give me this link and tell me that he met this guy today. I don't know anything about him, except that he seems to sincerely have a passion for God...and have an exceptional talent for capturing the Middle East in pictures.