Random Aiden

Here are some fun pictures of Aiden over the past few months. We have really been enjoying the warmer weather now, and as any kid Aiden's age-he loves the water :) We now have him enrolled in swim class and lessons. So hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have ourselves an Aiden fish!

I'm happy to report that Aiden has really gotten the hang of his bicycle now! Once he started getting it, he didn't want to stop :)

swimming with Uncle Danno on his birthday

Aiden is begging me to take him back to Chuckie Cheese since he went for a friend's birthday recently.

He hasn't gone fishing himself yet... but I know he's dying to! And poor little guy got bit by a mosquito earlier, so he's all puffy :(

My good friend Laura took this picture-hers were better than mine ;)

can't get enough of the sprinklers!

As Aiden says: "1, 2, 3,....12, Blastoff!" He never wants to stop at 3 ;)

Hope you are all staying cool this summer! We sure are trying, and having a good time at that too :)

Random Devin

It's been awhile since I've posted. I have been keeping some cute pictures aside in my mind of Devin over the past few months. So here they are!

Oh, and by the way, we scheduled to have my surgery take place on July 6th. So, here's to hoping it goes well and is successful!

Touchdown!

He hardly EVER falls asleep in our arms...but it's so precious when he does ;)

He's got 'wings'

Dirty Baby!

Bless You!

Nope...I think I'll keep him :)

So zonked that he fell asleep in front of the couch-poor baby!

Sr. Mary Devin

not a happy camper...

My good friend Laura took this super cute photo for me

Enjoying the summer-hope you are too!

Back tracking a bit

As I mentioned earlier in the Walking post, I had a few more videos from a few weeks ago to put up. While Micah was in California for a conference I went home to stay with my parents for a few days. It was right after my procedure, so it was nice to have a little help with the boys and fun family time with my sisters and parents. While we were there I wanted to see what Devin would do with a push toy-and he was starting to take a few steps! I knew that walking on his own would be just around the corner :) And I was right! haha. So here's a short video of his 'walker' walking.

Micah had told me before he left that Devin had been trying to go up the stairs, but I hadn't really seen him do it yet. So when I heard him crying in the foyer at my mom's I didn't think much of it. Then all of a sudden I hear my sister going "Oh Oh Oh!!" and I ran in...there is the goobots standing on the second stair holding onto the railing crying! Poor guy! So now that we were there he was fine to go all the way up. It took him a little practice to come down, but is starting to get the hang of it now. He typically will crawl up and wait for you to come before trying to go down-which is great for my piece of mind! But I still put the baby gate up just in case...

In just a blink of an eye he is growing up soooo fast!

Walking!

We've had a crazy busy week, and it's been a lot of fun. I have a ton to post about, and a lot to catch up on-but this just happened today and I wanted to get it up on the blog ASAP! Devin has taken his first real steps!!!! I'm so excited :) I know I'll regret saying this later-but I'm so happy he is going to be walking! It's hard to keep him clean/germ 'free' when he's on the floor so much, especially in public places. So I think this is a good thing, but again I'm sure I'll wish for his immobility at some point ;) Micah unfortunately was out of town and is coming home in a few minutes-so he missed it :( But will get to see it in person tomorrow. We called him as soon as it happened though!
My little baby is growing up!!!!

I'm such a proud Mama! :)

I've been having problems uploading videos to blogger these past few days and so the videos I have of him walking with a walker and going up the stairs a few weeks ago aren't up yet. I'm glad that these walking ones uploaded ok, and I'm posting them now since it happened today. So it may be funny that those other videos will be up after his "walking" ones-but I wanted to be sure to post this one now :)

Church nursery

As some of you are probably wondering what prompted the recent poll about church nurseries...I would like to share my recent experience. A few Sunday's ago it was Consecration Sunday and Micah's church was only having their later service at 11:00 with a luncheon and games for the kids to follow. We hardly ever go to the later service because it cuts our day in half, it's right before lunch and about the time Devin takes a quick cat nap. But we didn't have any other choice this particular Sunday. We got there on time and sat in the back on the end so we could easily exit with Devin if he was too fussy. As the first few minutes wore on, more people were coming in late and they needed more chairs. So they added to our row and then added more rows behind us. Then because the entire congregation was going to be in attendance they opened up the dividers so the entire space was open-and there was no place to retreat to with a crying baby-nor could I easily get out of our isle without further distraction. So needless to say it was a rough service for us...but one we felt we couldn't avoid.

The next Sunday as Pastor was dismissing the older kids to Children's Church (CC), he made a reminder that the Church had a nursery, and that everyone was free to use their services...for the sake of others. Now it was this last part that both Micah and I had some real disturbing feelings about. "For the sake of others". I completely understand that it is distracting to be listening to a sermon and have a screaming child disrupting. And I personally have no problem taking my son out if he is being too fussy. And we have! But I do not feel it's appropriate for MY family to be put in the nursery. My viewpoint is that we are there for Christ and our spiritual enrichment. How is a child to understand that if they are put in a nursery to play the whole time-and then at a certain age be expected to sit still and pay attention? And we are there to worship as a family, not be segregated. Don't get me wrong-I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I'm not saying it's not appropriate to have a cry room or nursery, however I feel that it's not the place for my family.
So when Pastor said this, I was really uncomfortable especially since it seemed that we were the only family present with a baby at that time. Micah also expressed his distraction for the remainder of the service when we were leaving.
We decided to give it another week to see if the same comment would be made. As we walked into the church, the first thing the greeter said after "Good morning" was "we have a nursery". And then pastor again mentioned it as he dismissed the older kids to Children's Church. But this time left out the "for the sake of others". I felt a little better about this, but still got the feeling that it was being force fed to us.
I'm not sure what we are going to do-if anything- about all this. One of the reasons we chose this particular church was because we thought it was very family friendly. The church we left when we had to move was very much family orientated, and even had the Pastor comment to us that he enjoys hearing the babies cry because that means that the family is there. And that everyone is welcome, however if someone happens to find it too distracting than maybe that church wasn't the right fit for them. And as Micah made note of...Jesus said "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Luke 18:16-17.
I cannot say for certain that those comments were pointedly made to us, but it really made us feel very uncomfortable. I feel that we may have to address it with Pastor if something more direct is mentioned to us, but right now I'm trying to take it with a grain of salt and let it roll off my back. I just felt I needed to explain the poll a little, and I appreciate the votes that were cast.
On a side note, we also have not sent Aiden back for CC. At my old parish I actually led the music for our version of CC, and it was literally a juvenile version of our Liturgy of the Word, with a reading, psalm, reading, Hallelujah, Gospel, and then homily. All of this was in language and message children could understand better. I thought it was great, and then the kids went back to their parents in time for the Liturgy of the Eucharistic. The CC at Micah's church now seems to be a time for the kids to go back-maybe hear a message and then run around and play until its time to return to the parents-at least this is what Micah observed. A few Sundays ago the kids came back with bags of Doritos. Now to me that was distracting! Again, we don't feel that church is the time for play-unless in a structured and/or liturgically meaningful way. So we have not felt comfortable sending Aiden back.
I hope and pray that we can again feel welcome with open arms-no strings attached.