I am sitting here realizing that this could possibly be the first time that a real since of quiet has fallen over the house since we arrived home from the hospital. There have been moments of silence but this quietness that has fallen on the house tonight is peaceful and reassuring. Charis has finally chatted herself to sleep, Cai is sleeping peacefully (at least until the next feeding) and Brad is still trying to find the end of the internet! The birdies are chirping away outside and the sun is starting to sink to find its bed for the evening. Ahhhh! Life is moving along quickly! Cai already seems to have grown up in ways. His cheeks are fuller and he opens his eyes for longer periods of time. Charis seems to be adjusting to life somewhat as she seems to have accepted Cai in her own way and will even love on him and give him kisses before she heads off to bed she is even eager to greet him in the morning. Brad is hanging on for the ride and seems pooped from playing mom and dad! He has been absolutely incredible with the kids, working and taking care of the house. Wow! I think that I would of long since fallen apart by now. I am hanging in there a little bored with the home front and longing to be free to run errands but that will come with time. I am missing picking up and snuggling with Charis but my incision is healing and just a few more weeks before I get the all clear to pick up Miss Charis. Life with two is definitely not boring but it is rewarding in so many different ways on so many different levels. I often feel torn between the two but I think that with time and healing this will work itself out. I am sure as Charis and Cai grow and get to know each other a little more our world will be different as well. These days have been sweet with the family and we have had SO much help from our extended family as well. Charis will be sad when I am fully recovered as her mornings with mom are probably just not the same as mornings with Gma and Granny. For now I am off to enjoy the quiet stillness of the house before hunger sets in with Cai or Charis decides sleeping is overrated and she would rather chat a little more. Hope that your evening is quiet!

Our house is slowly but surely turning blue! We have been a pink household for so long but with the time of Cai’s arrival approaching and the grandmothers in full swing things are definitely turning to blue. The sweet ladies in my circle at church had a small shower for us which was a blessing this week! It is fun to see the little boy clothes and try to imagine Cai in them. Then there is all the wonderful practical items that they have come out with since Charis’s birth.

Charis is starting to understand a little bit more about Cai. She loves seeing my growing belly and touching it while saying, “Cai” over and over again. She will even give him kisses every now and then. The other day she pointed to her tummy and said, “Cai” so we had a chat about how Cai is just in Mama’s tummy. I added the bumpers to Cai’s bed as well over the weekend which had come off of Charis’s bed when she out grew them. She seemed excited even though they were once her bumpers. I explained to her that they would keep Cai safe while sleeping so that he would not bump his head. Now she talks about, “Cai’s bumpers, no bump head!”. It is neat to see her catching on little by little.

I am very anxious for his arrival even though Brad reminds me that we still have a good wait ahead of us. I am just ready for him to be here and us all to live life together. I am just excited to see what that will look like. I know that the Lord will carry us through all the transitions but I am just ready to live it. I am learning to live these days to the fullest not wishing them away though. My time with Charis is very sweet and I cannot believe that we are quickly approaching birthday number two! Wow! Maybe the pink will win out yet. I am very thankful for both of the kiddos and even though blue is not my most favorite color it is sweet to see glimpses of it around the house now!

All these years my mom has saved the rocking chair that I had when I was a little girl. We have countless pictures of all my quality time in this little rocker. Mom passed it along to us when Charis was a baby and it has sat in our garage for quite sometime. Every time we went somewhere Charis was quick to point it out as we passed through the garage. Today was quite warm and beautiful so I decided to clean up the old rocker and bring it in. Charis was so excited about this new addition to our home. She sat in it most of the afternoon and gave each of her babies a turn in it. It is sweet to see something that I enjoyed so much as a kiddo being enjoyed so much by our kiddo! I must admit to my mom this was one thing worth keeping!!!

I love that our little Charis loves trains! We live a few miles from some tracks and she can hear each and every train with her little radar ears that are tuned specifically for trains evidently. She will run to us and let us know that she hears a choo choo and then she will make the whistle noise and the noise of the wheels clacking on the tracks. If we happen to see a train she will sit there just mesmerized by it. I love that she loves trains because they have always been apart of the stories that my grandmother would share with me. Her father was a train engineer on the Clinchfield line. From an early age my grandmother would take me on train day trips. Trains seems to be from such a romantic era to me maybe that comes from the stories that my grandmother shared and the letters left behind that her Father and Mother wrote to each other. I am excited to share these stories and letters with Charis and Cai someday so that they might pass them on to their children as well.

BOY!!!
Brad and I were able to go in for my ultrasound this morning which is always fun! It was amazing to see how much the little guy had grown. He is measuring ahead just like his big sister did at this point. I think that we are going to have another big baby on the way. It was such a sweet gift to know that he is well and healthy in there. It seems like everyone knew/thought that it was a boy except for me just call it mother’s instinct! I am so excited for the little guy! I am also excited to dress him like his DaDa (khakis and a button down) it will be too cute!!! My “morning sickness” had taken a little break (throwing up just once a week) but I have been sick a lot more lately. Whats with that!!! We are quite excited to welcome this little one into the world! I am sure that Charis is quite interested in seeing exactly what a Cai (Micaiah) is as well.

“Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord: they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.”
Psalm 111:1-4

Many have asked why the lack in posts lately well my friends there just is not that much to say about the inside of a toilet which is pretty much all I have been seeing lately. The little one growing inside me seems to not like anything much that I eat, smell or look at. That is right miss Charis has a sibling on the way! Brad and I are quite excited but we are also both excited for the sickness and tiredness to come to an end…all in sweet time! Charis is hanging in there she is clueless to what is actually going on of course and it makes her pretty mad when I step into the bathroom and shut the door behind me but she is quick to recover. Brad and I have chosen a gender-neutral name for this child so no matter the sex we have a name. Brad has loved the name Micaiah for a long time. It is Hebrew for “Who is like the Lord?”. We will wait for the sex for a middle name. Charis will often mention Cai (Micaiah) and point to a toy, to my belly or to her belly. It is quite precious but I do believe that she will have a rude awakening next spring when her sibling arrives. It will be a sweet thing to grow up with a sibling though. I am excited to be able to give Charis that sweet gift. We are so thankful to the Lord for this pregnancy and little one! There will be more and more to share on this little blog yet for now though please pardon me as I choose not to share about the inside of our toilets. I must say in these last few weeks they are probably much cleaner than they have been in a long time. If you have to stare at something you might as well make it as pretty as you can!

We had a family outing to the zoo today! It was so much fun to just get out of the house and be together as a family. It was a special treat! It was amazing to see how Charis responded to the animals just the look in her eyes trying to figure out what these big animals were! I longed to know what her little mind was thinking. She loves being outside so just to stroll around outside brought her great joy. Brad would pick her up and show her the animals that were not on her level it was just such a sweet thing to see them together also. They have an incredible love for each other. We are looking forward to many more fun trips to the zoo. We had such a good time!

Zoo Pics

Charis and I are so excited to have DaDa back home with us! Brad was gone for the weekend on a men’s retreat through church. Charis knew that her DaDa was missing! Every now and then she would look around and say DaDaDaDaDa. She would eventually give up when he did not peek around a corner. She did keep trying though. She is so happy to have her DaDa home!

I had not posted about this yet but I just keep chuckling in my mind over it so I thought that I would share… Two weekends ago I asked Brad to watch Charis while I made breakfast. He is always so willing to watch her and hang out with her while I get a few things done. It is a blessing! Brad brought Charis downstairs with him when breakfast was ready and he just looked at me with this look and said, “Did you know that this thing requires constant supervision?” I just laughed and laughed! It was the cutest most honest comment one could make about our child. It was already a known fact for me though. I still laugh about it when I think of it. This in case you were wondering is what led to baby proofing the house…a few minutes with a mobile baby!

The early afternoon started with, “Hey, want to watch a movie tonight?” I said, “Sure!” A little bit later I asked, “What do you want to watch?” Brad replies, “ Well next on our list is Metropolis.” We are watching the top 100 movies from AFI in order so it did not surprise me that I had never heard of it etc. A little bit later I ask, “What is it about?” Brad hesitates for a moment then responds, “ It is a science fiction film.” I am okay with that but my wheels are turning and I am thinking surely we are to the point now where movies have words so I ask and the answer was, “no”. Brad does share though that it is suspenseful. I am thinking in my head, “How in the world can a movie without words be suspenseful?” I let it go for a bit. A few hours pass and Brad just volunteers the information that it is a foreign film but it will not be bad for me (I cannot stand reading sub titles) because there are no words. I process this as the time approaches closer and closer for the movie to begin. Pretty late in the evening he says, “Oh”. Which can never be good when we have had this conversation going all day! Very matter-of-factly Brad says,” Did I mention that the studio does not have a full copy of the film because it has been lost?” My mind is going, ”Hello! What it the world did we buy then?” He says, “A good portion of the movie is there but there are parts that are missing where they just fill you in on what has been lost.” By this point wouldn’t you be dying to see the film? I just had to laugh and give him a really hard time about it for the rest of the evening. We got to tired to actually watch the movie so I will have to fill you in on it later. I am sure that I will think it is the best thing ever since I have given Brad such a hard time about it.