Running Over!

Soren's been starting to SING, on his own randomly, and we've been trying to catch him doing it.  Today he started singing "Running Over" while I was changing his diaper (his faves are ones with motions, that he does as well).  So after I got him all ready for his nap, I grabbed the camera to see if he would keep on singing.  Here you can follow him saying "Running over/[since the] Lord saved me/I'm [as] happy..." before being interrupted from the kitchen...which is followed by a classic Soren response to loud noise...keeps making me laugh out loud when I watch it. Enjoy! -P

Barcelona Day Two

Yibby had the camera almost all day, so you will see a lot more of us and a lot more pictures in general:) Another great day walking, walking, walking all around Barcelona.  Pigeons in the park, La Rambla to the sea, old city streets, small neighborhood cafe, overlooking the city from the art museum, beautiful parks, old car show, churros (deep fried sweets) dipped in thick melted chocolate, supper on the terrace at our flat.  I like this day.

The children LOVED the pigeons in Placa Catalunya.  Chased them for a long time.

Making her 'flying' sign

Running!

A little warm up spot

Loving some tapas!

Caught part of an old car show

Up, up, up

This is what S thinks of Barcelona

Our Barcelona Day (photos by B, P and Yibby)

The best croissant and "some" meat

These sweeties!

Looking out over things

S stopped at these trees (probably 10) the entire way around the balcony

Park Guell

Sleepy

Tourists

Miss independent 

Barcelona streets

Wow.  To see this in person!

Contrary to what it looks like, L did ok.  S slept in the ergo for the last leg.

A little jaunt

9.30 am Taxi to grand taxi to airport... As we boarded we got a message that our airbnb flat was flooded. We went anyway. Both children slept on the flight and some friendly people tried to help when we got to the Barcelona airport at 4pm. Lots of unknowns, lots of time sitting in a deserted airport on the internet trying to figure something else out for the the night. We booked another place and, wonderfully, they allowed us to stay for three nights on a few moments notice. So we lugged our children and bags and stroller onto the train, then the metro. Finally, we stood in front of the 'gate' to the apartment building (at 8.30 pm). After borrowing yet another phone (we did not have an international plan so had borrowed several phones throughout the night and used skype when we had it) our friendly host showed up and even took time talking about some favorite spots in the city. SO good to arrive! It was really fun and different to shop in the little grocery store across the street for supper ham on pizza for supper. Neither P nor I have really experienced European culture before and we've really enjoyed the change from the city we live in now. Today we visited a central plaza that used to be a bull fighting amphitheater which is now a high spot to look out over the city. We took more metros and walked up lots of stairs to Park Guell, a Gaudi famous. We also walked to the Sagrada Familia. Stunning. We enjoyed taking in culture as we walked. We've also been so thankful for our great flat and terrace to rest from the long walks. The children have done so very well on this adventure. Looking forward to another day in this laid back and busy city.

Our Steadying God

Soren took his first steps yesterday.

B and I were reading the Good Book together along with The Book of Common Prayer for Ordinary Radicals . We had just sung together the suggested song for the day, "Solid Rock":
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

...

If you are not familiar with the ordinary radicals book mentioned above, each day they have a refrain that we read 3 times. The one for this morning was:

"Show us your goodness, Lord : and steady our hearts in you."

In the midst of the litany, we both looked up to see an amazing thing.  Soren stood up on his own in the middle of the room (not unusual), and then did something neither of us had seen him do in his 3.5 years of life.  Without any support, he shifted weight onto one of his legs and took a tiny step with the other one! (B remembers him even taking a second one before falling down.) We were both so stunned; we jumped up and ran to him cheering and clapping.  As we encouraged him, he did it over and over again, no more than one or two steps at a time, but that was enough for us.  The video below looks like so small a thing, but for us it is these 6-second moments we have been longing many months to see, representing a tremendous amount of strengthening work, that some of you have helped with:

trampoline! 

and bed bouncing time, 

and standing to read, 

and walking holding two hands, 

and cruising along couches,

and, most recently, walking holding one hand), 

...and words of encouragement, patience, and the help of a good God.  Many of you have prayed along with us, longing to see this moment, and so we are happy to share it with you today.


We sat again together to finish the reading and to give teary thanks to God for his goodness.

And then another wonderful prayer from the day's reading shocked and blessed us:

"Lord, steady our feet when the world tries to rock and shake our faith. When materialism beckons with coy hands, steady our feet. When lust sashays within us, steady our feet. When fear tugs at our knees, steady our faith. Show us your goodness, and steady our hearts in you. Amen."

God, this is our prayer for Soren:

Steady Soren's feet, 

his knees, 

his faith, 

his heart 

for all that is ahead of him.  

Thank you for being his steadying God.  

We love you.

A few things I've been wanting to share

• Leem loves pomegranates.  I think she gets this from Grandaddy, who I think of every time I "score" a pomegranate, running the knife gently along the longitudinal circumference two different times, then cut a little hole in the top, and then split from top to bottom into four wedges.  I always give one of the wedges to Leem who loves to patiently pick them out. And, concerning the ones that get away, she likes to take her fork and spear them before putting them in her mouth.  Being "done" eating pomegranates means having her cheeks so full of the little seeds that she cannot fit any more in.  She will jump down from the table and do whatever she does for the next half hour or so with them stored away in there.  :)
• And this.  Yesterday I looked over at Leem and happened to see this.  The call to prayer began outside: "Allaaaaaaaaaaahu..." and Leem chimed in: "...akbar." Yes, God is great!  We never taught her to do this, but she does hear it 5 or so times a day.  :)
• Soren was up this morning at 5:30 (used to be 6:30 until the time change last weekend, grrr) and ready to eat.  I changed his diaper and was going to bring him to lay down in a bed for bit, but I looked at him first and said, "Do you have something to tell me?  What do you want?"  He made the sign for "eat."  This may seem like a very small thing, but actually its fairly substantial in his development. Until recently he has not volunteered his wants or needs with words. I honored that request with half a banana.  Keep it up buddy! Later he snarfed down two turnip-eggs, twoish mandarins and a quarter of an apple.  Wowza!  
• Soren has also been walking up a storm, though still not, as yet, across empty space by himself. In the last week he has been walking more along things unassisted, even walls and hanut glass panes, which is awesome since walls and hanut glass panes don't provide a ton of help if you start to lose balance.  He even maneuvered along a wall and up a step into our apartment a couple days ago!  Wowza!  The kid wants to GO places.  Before he would have quickly plopped onto his butt to go everywhere, especially if there were tricky barriers; increasingly he is seeing bi-pedal motion as a viable option instead. I also walk a lot with him in our quiet neighborhood (read, not a lot of cars threatening to run us over), and I let him take both of my index fingers and take the lead. He has a strong preference for the street over sidewalks.  Another worker told me once, "people here just walk in the streets because the sidewalks are too unpredictable."  Soren has picked up the local way: if I try to force him to safer ground he torques his body mightily to keep his feet on the level road.
• I am feeling good; this morning I set out in faith at 8am to complete a task I didn't really know how to accomplish.  I headed to the old city in a taxi, and saw some guys outside the old city gates with push carts.  "I will need one of those," I thought.  I ask one of the men if he will help me.  "Oui," he tells me in French, and off we go down through the gate and into the city.  Step 1 complete.  With help from a friend (on the phone) we find the place where we are picking up some household items we previously bought and load them on the push cart.  Step 2 complete.  We head back up out of the old city and talk to a guy who has a van.  We load the items (including a massive rug, by the way) into the van and I pay the push-cart man.  Step 3 complete. I direct the van driver to our house using my new language and we unload the items at our apartment and I pay him.  Project complete, only 1.5 hours and $11.50 later!  

Humdillah.  Praise God!
-P

The first couscous

Home

2 days of fun videos

go on and KISS de girl!

Leemee and the Fan

and...
some pics from the other day.  S and his favorite place and toy.  L being L (getting in on the action and eating as often as possible!).  B hard at work, momming.  P enjoying fresh coffee (which is warm because he just watched it being roasted a $1 taxi ride away!).

how DOES a bidet work?  I'm not sure this one does, actually...