1 Year Old!

1 year old!

 11 months old

10 months old

9 months old

8 months old

7 months old

6 months old

 
 5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

 2 months old

1 month old

2 weeks old

Dear Calvin,

How did this happen? You are 1! No more tiny baby...

Here are our big milestones of late:

- Summer has come! Your first application of sunscreen was pretty cute. You gave the biggest grin at funny mommy tickling your face all over.

- You have some little pegs you love holding. You don't let go of them for anything, so when you go crawling along, it sounds like a peg leg. Super cute.

- You'll still hang out happily on my back in the Ergo pretty much indefinitely if we're outside. Inside, I'd better be moving around or you get bored fairly fast. But it is easy to take you shopping or trek around church or go on walks since you're still such a happy little papoose on my back.

- You made it through the 4-day retreat without me! Wouldn't take a bottle (you silly goose), but you just ate a big bowl of oatmeal and milk and baby food whenever hungry, and that seemed to work out fine. (I, on the other hand, had a horrible case of plugged ducts while we were gone. But it was still worth it for a lovely and refreshing retreat!)

- In the midst of some recent teething, you developed a really troubling tendency to bite while nursing. I didn't know if I would pull through, but thank the Lord you're doing much better now and I didn't get any infections or anything. This prompted a move toward whole milk (which you love mixed in cereal), adding meat to your diet, and cutting down to 2 feedings a day. Good work!

- You are a bright-eyed sweetie pie, cheerfully heading into the nursery, and giving me big smiles and happy all-body bounces when I pick you up again. You love exploring things (and can find your way into many quiet little corners full of chokables) and love being outside.

- Your very own riddle: How is it that someone who is not a year old yet has been alive to celebrate (outside the womb) not one but two Father's Days? Bonus fun trivia: You share that very notable distinction with Isaiah Lee, another Father's Day baby!

- To celebrate your birthday today, you pulled yourself up to standing for the first time! You look huge standing up...

 - You are not altogether blown away by the experience of cake. Curious, but all in all you prefer Cheerios.

I'm quietly grieving a significant friend and mentor from when I was in high school. So many hard things in saying an unexpected good-bye, but here are the thoughts that came flooding to mind when I paused to write some memories to the family:

One of the biggest orienting truths in my life is that God is an Author. Hebrews 12:2 says, “…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…” Being an English major myself, I love that image, but also I find it helps when life feels like it has spun out of control and I’m disoriented, can’t make heads or tails of things.

An author does things in a story that don’t make sense until the end. Many twists and turns, moments of heartbreak and despair, even grievous wrongs, in the hand of a good author still may lead to a beautiful conclusion. A most happy ending....

I grieve with you, wonder at God’s ways, wait to see the end of the story one day. But I am confident, God is not finished yet. May His nearness be your good.

My son, we serve a great God, one whose "thoughts are not our thoughts and ways are not our ways" (Isaiah 55:8-9). But in His kindness He has decisively settled the question, "Does God really love us?"

He answered that question by doing the unthinkable: giving His own Son so that He could make us His own children. 1 John 3:1 says, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." So we are, little man, through faith in Jesus alone as the payment for our sin and gift of righteousness for our account. And in Him, no matter what comes in life, we may bank on the everlasting love of God, that He is for us, that He will carry us, that He will bring our story to its beautiful good ending one day.

My big 1-year-old, how we pray that this will be your eternal hope and joy. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I love you, sweet Calvin,
Your momma