Snow, Sherwin, and Sitar

January was so busy, we missed the opportunity to share some of our great adventures! On Inauguration Day, we woke to a pretty decent snowstorm. After breakfast, we bundled up and played in the yard for a bit. A snowplow came down our street, then we took our sleds over to our neighbor's house. Amelia(2) and Audrey (3) really enjoyed sledding. Thomas (1) was a little cold as he didn't have decent snow pants or boots. He'd only been walking for a few days, and I didn't realize he'd need them. After warming up with some snacks and lunch, the kids enjoyed watching the inauguration. Amelia loves pointing out Barack Obama on TV. Maybe she just likes saying his name because there are no S's in it.


Her vocabulary and expression are progressing at a faster rate than her articulation, so it is challenging at times to understand her. Some things that leave us scratching our heads:
-I need a poon.
-I'm cratching.
-my shleeshlack
-Where are my lippers?
-I want to ride in the doe-doe!
The weird words are: spoon, scratching, sleepsack, slippers, stroller...

Also in Jan. we had a friend's painting company over to repair a ton of drywall issues and paint all our ceilings. We decided that it would be best to get them to repaint the rooms that really needed it since our lives will not be slowing down for such activities in the next year. We got the bathrooms, family room, dining room, and kitchen repainted while we stayed at a friend's condo in downtown Chapel Hill. We were so thankful for Ashley and Joe's generosity to let us use their condo while they weren't there. It was SO nice. Leslie also participated in the huge kids consignment sale during that hectic week.

Finally, we attended the grand opening of Michael's favorite restaurant's new location. It was a huge celebration with Indian dancing and a free spectacular lunch buffet. The mayor of Durham did the ribbon cutting. We thought it was kinda funny he mentioned watching the building change every week when he took his Jag over to the carwash. The kids were quite patient for the lengthy ceremony and were glad when their friend Hannah and her family joined us at the table.

Grateful for above ground power lines

This evening at about 3:30am, we were awakened out of our sleep by a huge explosion and a small flash. I immediately assumed that a power transformer had exploded nearby or that there was a more serious problem at the gas station across the street. Leslie quickly got out of bed and called 911. We looked out the back door and saw that a car had flipped over and crashed into the phone pole at the corner of our backyard. The driver had gotten out and appeared to be unhurt. No one else was in the vehicle.

Firstly, thank you God for protecting the life of that driver. Secondly, thank you God for putting a phone pole there to prevent that car from careening into our backyard and possibly even doing damage to our car, fence, or house.

We're too wound up to fall back to sleep at the moment and are in our back room with the window open observing everything. Firefighters are examining the wreck to see if there is any gasoline leaking. I imagine a crew from Duke Energy will be along soon to check the pole for damage. A tow truck needs to flip the car back over and tow it away.

Too much excitement for a Sunday morning!

Edited to add: We believe the car belongs to a younger (than us) neighbor. The police told me the driver was arrested (we assume for DUI). Thomas coughed for an hour after the event until we put Vicks on him. The power trucks worked in our front yard for another 1.5 hours until Amelia woke up at 5:55. What a night.

Thomas weighs in

I took Thomas in for an unofficial weight/height check at the pediatrician's office today. He weighs 20 lb. 9 oz. (3rd percentile) and is 31 1/4 inches long (50th percentile). He continues to be long and lean.

Big Steps

Today is the first day Thomas is officially walking more than crawling. He has been taking steps for over 2 months, but I think he has been afraid of "Hurricane Amelia" who often comes out of nowhere to knock him for a loop. He seems to aimlessly move from room to room. He's so proud. Unfortunately, this development happened just days after Grandmama and Granddaddy went back home to FL.

Amelia just prayed a little prayer after dinner that Daddy (who is home sick today) would feel well enough to clean up the kitchen. I backed her up on that prayer! She's also perfecting the art of imitating the nasty hacking cough that he has. She's too cute. She has an application in at the preschool across the street from our house, and I can't believe she might actually be a student somewhere next fall.

Michael's been busy going up and down the attic stairs with outgrown clothes for all the other family members while waiting for a big rain to fill his new rain barrel. He's been studying the Life of Moses in his bible study, and really enjoying the leadership role he's in.

I was excited to have my mom and stepdad up for a couple days this weekend. Mom and I repaired most of the sleepsacks Amelia chewed the zippers out of as well as sewed up some new ones for the next little ones. I'm also preparing all the baby girl clothes and shoes for a big consignment sale next week. We found out a few days ago the new baby will be a boy, so we're trying to get things organized in our cozy home for another little bundle on June 8th!

Amelia weighs in

Amelia had her 30 month well-visit yesterday. Everything was just fine.

She weighs 31 lbs (75th percentile) and is 36 inches tall (50th percentile).

The Scoltock family came caroling and gathering canned foods for the IFC pantry this evening. Apparently Richard was in charge of pulling the wagon or something as we didn't see him on the porch. The talented singers took requests and did a fantastic job of mesmerizing our children with their voices! Thanks, neighbors for sharing joy!

Thanksgiving 2008

Michael's family all came to Durham to have Thanksgiving lunch at the Washington Duke Inn. There were 15 1/2 people total. We are thankful to God for His many blessings.

Click for more pictures...