I missed out on Jude’s five month birthday to post any pictures or give any updates, which is a pity because I do love a five month old baby. I remember it was the same with Ransom: the month leading up to that time came with certain frustrations, but come five months, we all seem to get happier. Besides the ups and downs of spring weather, life in Pullman has been very pleasant. Maybe I’m particularly pleased that I just got my herb garden planted. We don’t have a lot of space for a garden, and what we do have will be rather shaded over once the trees get their leaves, but I’m ready to give it a try nonetheless. Ransom and I have been spending as much time outside as possible, and the freedom it gives him to hit things, “shoot” things, spit on things, and yell makes us both happier than when I constantly tell hell him NO when we are inside. My working in the garden is a way of me having something productive to do while he plays so that I don’t feel like I’m wasting time watching him run around. That thought in and of itself is an untruth because it isn’t wasting time to play with your child, but this way we can accomplish something at the same time. Ransom has been growing and developing, but we continue to have fun listening to him talk and learn what is going on in his little brain. It is obvious that repetition is one of his predominant forms of learning, so we smile when he tells us not infrequently “Good job, hon’!” He constantly says cute little things that I really should write down before he stops saying them and I forget what they are (just as I am now…) As I alluded to earlier, he is currently enthralled with guns. Jacob and I find this a little strange because they are not a big part of our lives although Jacob has one downstairs in the basement that he has never used when around Ransom. Nonetheless, anything ranging from a straw to an adaptor cord can currently be transformed into one with the appropriate sound effects. More than anything it has impressed me how deeply gender identity is ingrained within a person. He is simply interested in things that males are interested in and less so in things that females are interested in. Recently he has also started talking about his work, probably because his dad (and now mom) go to work. I asked him where it was and he informed me that it was where dad works. He was going to go there and do pipetting (He also talks about working with cultures and blood. Definitely Jacob’s son.). He loves going on truck rides and going to work with Jacob on weekends. While fully capable of sleeping in his toddler bed (he takes naps in a queen sized bed over at grandma’s house), he’s started requesting that he sleep in his crib again, possibly because it feels more secure to him. I haven’t made a big deal out of it and figure he’ll be turned out when he and Jude start sharing a room… whenever that is. Other than that, his little toddler world is
full of very strong opinions, plenty of bumps and bruises, and lots of silliness. We really enjoy having Ransom around =)
It’s amazing to us that baby Jude will be 6 months old in less than 2 weeks! He is an active little boy and constantly moves. Even if you are holding him, he can’t sit still, although when he is tired he will grab a near by piece of fabric and pop his thumb in his thumb in his mouth, looking very much like Linus from Charlie Brown. He still is much too interested in his feet or other objects on the floor to decide that sitting by himself might be nice. Instead, he spend much of his time in energy in his continuing quest to crawl and I am so impressed by how strong he has gotten recently! He is more than capable of getting up on his knees, or even on his hands and toes in a bear crawl, over and over again. The main thing left is just for him to figure out the mechanics of crawling, and I’m not sure how long that will take. I am excited at his progress for his sake, but also dreading the impending mobility because of the need for babyproofing the house, which has quite nicely not been an issue yet. We started both Ransom and Jude on solid food at 5 months and been glad that we did so. Jude was/is ready for solid food and it has been fun watching him learn to eat. I feel like Ransom is often more in his own little world (maybe a first child thing?) but Jude is extremely aware of what everyone else is doing and wants to do it to. This goes for eating as well, and he loves trying new things, especially if we are eating them. I was excited to start him on solids until I was reminded through experience of how ridiculously messy it is. Thankfully Jude has liked mesh feeder bags better than Ransom did, so we have been doing less of the spoon-and-miss method with purees and instead been sticking larger pieces of fruits and veggis in the mesh bag and letting him go at it. In a semi stroke of genius, I bought a couple of suction cups with hooks on them and a tied the feeder to it so that I don’t have to constantly be retrieving it from the floor. Another nice change in Jude’s life recently is that he switched from 3-4 naps down to 2 longer ones! I love this because it allows us to be out of the house for much longer periods of time in between those naps. In general, Jude is still full of smiles right now and an easy baby to love and take care of!
Jacob has been a wonderful husband and father. He is so thoughtful. My sister-in-law (his sister) just had her first child – a sweet baby girl – last week and, after much research and decision making about what would be a good fit for our family, Jacob got me/us an Ipod so that we could see her and the baby, and hopefully keep in touch with our families better in general (this is a resounding hint to all family members that don’t already have one to get some electronic device that does FaceTime so that we can chat with you. It is so much easier than skype, and we want to talk with you more often!). We have already had a number of fun chats with Grandma Laurie, Aunty Janna, and Cousin Katherine, and are so grateful that we live in an age that allows our children to see and talk to their relatives even though they live far away. Jacob is currently in the midst of a large and very important experiment at his work. He is trying to develop a cattle vaccine and they are currently testing out sortof a prototype, which involves a lot of daily sample testing and analysis. We would appreciate your prayers that the experiment goes well, he has put a lot of time and energy into it! He has also been working on improving his own health recently by biking to work. I am impressed at his ability to lose weight through self control when he sets his mind to it. He has also been looking for ways to serve our church and the community. Our church has a ministry where we help people move (e.g. we help pack boxes, load things into trucks, etc.) and he and the head of that ministry are trying to find ways of expanding it so that we can serve more people in the community. I am really proud of him and looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
I am doing well albeit busy. At the moment I have about 2 hours of down time on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (if I decide not to start dinner then) and an occasional evening by myself if Jacob goes to work or hangs out with a friend, so that is why I haven’t been blogging much! I was convicted earlier this week that it is easy for me to appreciate Jacob as a parent, but it is just as important for me to love him as the wonderful husband that he is to me as well. It has been healthy for us to spend evenings together intentionally instead of just relaxing because the kids are down. I really love being the mom of our two boys as well, but it is hard work! Hard, but well worth it. They teach me a lot about myself and a lot about my relationship with God. They are so quick to forgive and so loving. I am really grateful that I can stay home with them and watch what they do and learn throughout the day. I also am loving my work right now! I am excited every day that I walk into lab – my coworkers are extraordinarily pleasant to be around and it provides a lovely amount of structure in comparison to life with children, which is always seems to always have an element of surprise to it (like Ransom giving Alice a haircut the other day. I found the poor thing pinned up against the wall as Ransom was happily snipping away and was grateful that he didn’t draw any blood.) My project isn’t a particularly difficult one, mostly making a bunch of mutated proteins in yeast and testing them on different kinds of DNA damaging substances and UV radiation, and I have to say that, after years of troubleshooting in my graduate school lab, it is so encouraging to do something that is repeatedly successful.
Well that’s enough for now! I hope all of you, dear dwindling list of readers are doing well too! =)
Mariana and Her Men 