Warning...

... Two-year-old potty humor ahead.

Here are two good ones from Lorien this past week:

"I think Larry Boy puts his poop in the potty."

"Mommy! I tooted! It makes me happy!"

Word Now Breaking Heaven's Silence

The combination of listening to Christmas music and bathing Josiah this morning put a giant lump in my throat. I have loved this song for many Christmas seasons (especially those in which I got to hear Mark Epperson perform it at the First Pres Christmas Joy concert). But this year it feels especially meaningful as I hold my little guy and think about what Mary must have felt holding her baby.

In case you're wondering, it was the fourth verse that brought tears to my eyes this morning. 

Welcome to Our World (Chris Rice)

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking

How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting

Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence

Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us

Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

[By the way, I am spending this afternoon doing more retro-updates, so look backward for more new posts.] 

A small thing that's a big deal

I mentioned that I've felt very disconnected, living so far away when both of my grandmothers passed away in the past 18 months. So I need to tell something very important about their passing. Both times, when the end got near, my brother Mike was the one who thought to call me so I could say goodbye to them. He'd get me on the phone, then put the phone up to their ears and let me say what I needed to say. I don't know how much either of them heard, but it meant so much to be able to at least tell them I loved them. 

Good man. 

I love this picture. I stole it from my sister in law, Mandi.

Grandma Beam

So, I have now lost all of my grandparents. Pappy (my mom's dad) died when I was eight years old. But the other three I had into adulthood. My Grandpa Beam died when I was 23. And both of my grandmas I got to keep until my thirties. 

My Grandma Beam died on Thursday night, the last one to go. In some ways it was expected. In some ways it was not. Last Christmas, we all got the respiratory yuck. At 92, hers turned into pneumonia, and she never really recovered. For months, we have doubted that she'd make it until the holidays. My dad has been asking her lately who she's looking forward to seeing in heaven. Of course, she'd say Ernie (my grandpa). But in the past week, she started talking about how she's been looking forward to seeing her mother, who died almost 50 years ago. Still, when she actually went, she went fast--less than 24 hours from when her oxygen levels dropped until she went home to be with Jesus. 

The past year has been a hard one for my parents, brother and aunts, who have cared for her in her home, along with a handful of angels who were her home healthcare providers. I am so thankful to all of them for hanging in there with her. I felt very disconnected, being 1200 miles away during the whole thing, but it was such a big deal that she got to live out her days at home. She made a huge impact on all of us by caring so faithfully for grandpa during his long illness, so I am very proud of my family for giving the same gift.

We were planning to have my brother Mike and his family here for Thanksgiving, so obviously those plans got turned upside down. Thanks to my mom and dad's extra airline miles, we're heading to Ohio on Monday for Thanksgiving and a memorial service. 

About 1920

Ohio State senior, 1940

In honor of their 50th anniversary (April 1992), taken fall 1991

At our wedding, 2004. Grandma Beam and Josh's Grandma Keffer
were the witnesses who signed our marriage license. 

Josiah - Two Months

A good little mama

Lorien has been sooooo good with her baby brother. And she is learning all kinds of things about how to take care of babies. She is practicing on all her "friends."

Here she is with glow worm in the Baby Bjorn carrier. :)

Trick Or Treat!

We've been intending to carve pumpkins for the last several years, and this year, we finally did it!

Can you tell who these guys are supposed to be?  

Bob and Larry pumpkins in the snow!

Thankfully, by the time Halloween came, it had warmed up a bit and the snow had melted. (Gotta love fall in Colorado!) We trick-or-treated to just a few friends' houses. Lorien went as Snow White. My favorite moment was when she saw an older kid wearing a Scream mask and said, "He's yawning really big." Daddy and Josiah stayed home to hand out candy to the kids who came to our house. When Lorien and I returned home, she loved watching at the door and alerting Daddy when some kids were coming up our walk. 

Little princess. 

Punkin head

Faces

My mom wanted some pics of Josiah's face, close up. I think these are pretty cute and funny...baby acne and all. 

Josiah - One Month

Hard to believe he's been here for a month already!

Lorien and Josiah

First Snow

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

My mom was here for about a week and a half, and my dad came for a long weekend. Not gonna lie: it was pretty nice to have a 4 adults to 2 kids ratio for a while. :) 

Lorien and Grandpa turned the patio into a work of art.

Grandma and Josiah

Not sure what was so funny, but from the look on Lorien's face, it was probably something she said. 

Newborn Portraits

Knocked flat

What a week! Last Tuesday, Josh left for California and my mom arrived to help out with the baby. In between those two events, however, I had a bad case of the chills. I thought it was back spasms from my lower back still having issues, plus I was still on prescription strength Motrin from the delivery, so the shaking went away after my next dose. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't back spasms, but a fever being partially masked by the Motrin. Wednesday morning I woke up freezing and shaking. It's a good thing my mom was here to take care of me. I laid on the couch all day, and as each dose of ibuprofen wore off, the fever would spike, and then I'd have about two miserable hours before I could take another dose. By late evening, even the meds weren't bringing any relief, and my fever was at 104. Of course, the nurse on duty at my OB's office insisted that I go to the ER, if only to rule out any postpartum infection. 

So at 9:30 p.m., mom and I dropped the kids off at Mimi and Papa's house and headed to the hospital. As with any good ER visit, we had to wait about an hour and a half before I was admitted. As we waited, we were both reminded of the last time we both ended up at the ER together, and that was with my Grandma a few weeks before she died in May 2010. So we sat in the waiting room and talked about Grandma and cried together...a brief moment of beauty and grief in the hospital hallway. 

And wouldn't you know it: while I waited to be admitted, I felt my fever break. Sure enough, by the time they wheeled me back, it had dropped by 3 degrees. Still, they swabbed me for everything imaginable and did an ultrasound to make sure I wasn't having complications from delivery. In the end, they diagnosed me with a nasty virus, charged me $9 for a dose of Tylenol (gotta love inflated hospital prices), gave me a bag of fluids via IV and sent me home. It has taken a whole week to recover. That is not how I was hoping to spend a week of my already-too-short maternity leave. Did I mention how glad I was to have my mommy here to take care of me? 

Daddy's Traveling

So, while we were in the labor and delivery room, Josh got a text message from one of his colleagues inviting him to travel to California for a shoot just one week after Josiah's birth. Neither one of us wanted him to be traveling this soon but the opportunity is such a good one, and at this point in starting a new business, you kind of have to say yes to everything. So he left for California this morning.

And here was my lunchtime conversation with Lorien:

Lorien: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's in California.
Lorien: That's all the way to Michigan!

She may get her sense of hearing from her Daddy, but apparently she gets her sense of direction from me.

More Josiah Photos

With Mimi and Papa

Lorien looks into the nursery

She was skeptical for a while, but when she got to hold him, she became a believer. :) 

Another bath pic, 'cause they're just so cute!

Josiah Lee

He is here!

Josiah Lee was born at 2:33 p.m. on September 14, 2011. 

We went to the hospital at 7:30 that morning to begin induction. It took about an hour before the Pitocin actually got started, and by 9:15, I was having some contractions. I got a fabulous epidural at around 11:00. (I am 2 for 2 on epidurals ... perhaps I should quit while I'm ahead.) By 1:45, I was ready to push, but.... my doctor was not!

Of course, there's no way we could have known this when we scheduled the induction, but a huge weather front moved in on the morning of the 14th. There was record rainfall that day—the most in 12 years. Apparently, that kind of shift in barometric pressure causes people to go into labor. TEN babies were born on the same shift as Josiah! My doctor delivered four of them, and at the point when I reached 10 cm., he was delivering another baby and scheduled to appear in surgery right after. So we waited about half an hour after I was ready to begin pushing. The epidural made that bearable, but eventually, we couldn't really wait any longer. 

I pushed through 2 contractions with the delivery nurse, and then she said, "Stop!" She pressed the call button and called for Dr. Stark to come immediately. I waited through one contraction for him to arrive, then pushed through two more and Josiah was out! 8 lbs. 3 oz., 20 inches. And hair!

OK, enough words. Here are the pictures!

Ready to go to the hospital, one day short of
39 weeks. I had to include the cane in the picture,
since it's part of the story of this pregnancy. Really
hoping that offloading a baby will fix my back!

Just born!

Lorien wasn't sure what to think of him at first.
She was very concerned about my IV, though. 

First bath

Welcome...

...to the Fall 2011 Class of the Focus Leadership Institute. I had such a great time spending the weekend with them at La Foret retreat center in Monument, Co. Granted, I don't move very fast right now, and walking causes a good bit of pain, so I wasn't able to participate in the kickoff retreat the way I usually do, but they have been wonderful—carrying my things and helping me to take it easy whenever possible.

It's strange that I will only have a week with them, and then I'll be out for at least 6 weeks on maternity leave, but it has been really fun getting to know them so far!

Ouch!

I mentioned back in July that my lower back had gone out. Fortunately, at that time, a couple of visits to the physical therapist worked miracles, and I have been pain-free ever since. Until this weekend. When we took belly pics on Sunday, I could feel my sacrum starting to slide out again. Over the past few days, it has only gotten worse, and this time, getting adjusted didn't help. It's so late in my pregnancy that my ligaments are too loose to hold things in place once I've been adjusted.

So, this morning I stopped at Walgreens on the way to work and bought a cane. I'm not kidding. I am soooo glad we have scheduled induction for a week from now, because this is not a fun way to get around!

Belly Pics

I swore that I wouldn't be that mom, who takes millions of photos of kid #1 and none of kid #2, but I kind of am. When I was pregnant with Lorien, we took a profile pic every month of the pregnancy. This time we have taken ... zero profile pics. Until today. Here they are! (37 weeks.)