One more month

That's right, in one month Noah will turn two. I know this is a common sentiment among parents when they consider how quickly their children are growing, but I just can't believe it. It truly seems impossible that two years ago we were anxiously awaiting his arrival, and now I'm buying presents for his second birthday. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly about this wild child who has turned our lives upside-down but has brought us such joy.

-He hits. A lot. It's not fun. Whenever he's frustrated, his first response is to hit whomever--or whatever--is closest. Usually it's me, but Luke has had his share, too. I think it's a combination of Noah's small vocabulary and the fact that there is someone around who frustrates him quite a bit. Luke avoided this stage mostly because he was the first child I think. I have no real strategy to deal with this behavior other than time-outs. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

-Speaking of his vocabulary, I made the effort to count how many words he has, and it's over 50. I was a little concerned that he didn't have many words, but after making a list, I think he's where he needs to be. He's not really putting words together, but when you have an older brother who's willing to talk on your behalf, why make the effort?

-He's still resisting naps. He was in his crib for two hours today just making noise. He doesn't cry or get upset, he just throws all his toys out of his crib, and recently he's started to take off his socks and pants. Last week he took off his diaper, too. Luckily I discovered his partial nakedness before there was anything to clean up.

-And speaking of taking off his pants, he pulls them down all the time. Any time we see a bathroom, he says, "pee-pee" and tries to pull his pants down. I offer to take him in and let him sit on the potty, but he doesn't want to. I can't quite figure this one out. This afternoon he walked around the house with his pants around his ankles. He's a nut.

The next time there's a Noah update, he'll be two!

Catching up before I get behind again

OK, I know I've been remiss yet again in updating my blog, but I have had quite a full plate the past couple of weeks. Last summer, God placed a large task on my heart, and I decided to step out in faith and do my best to answer his call. The children's ministries at our church is fabulous, but despite a large, mostly well-to-do congregation, we struggle funding our larger programs like VBC. At the end of this summer's Bible camp, the idea of hosting a holiday bazaar as a fundraiser for VBC came to me, and soon after that I started to put the wheels in motion.

Our church in Columbia hosted a similar event every year, so I called a friend who used to chair the bazaar to get ideas from her. She encouraged me to put this event on, and with the help of our children's team at church, the idea of a bazaar became a reality. I know that this was God's idea, and I was merely his hands and feet. I could never have pulled this off on my own!

The bazaar was last Saturday, and it was a huge success. Most of the vendors assumed we had been holding a bazaar for several years because most everything ran so smoothly. We had 55 vendors, and over 250 people came to shop. Each vendor donated an item for our raffle booth, and the ticket sales totaled over $350. We also had a frozen foods booth; church members made meals and froze them, and we sold them. We sold every last item that was donated and earned $750! In total, we made about $6000 for the children's programs at church.

I am so blown away by this whole experience. While I had many people helping me, there were two people in particular who helped make the bazaar such a success, and I couldn't have done it without Amy who was in charge of advertising and Laurie who organized the frozen foods booth. They are awesome and really put their spiritual gifts to work in a big way. I was never really nervous about how it would turn out; I knew it would be a success, but I didn't know it would be this big of a success. I really think that God was glorified through this event, and I know we'll put the money we earned to good use.

Bella Cosa Texas (I bought myself a little treat from her!)

One of our many fabulous jewelry vendors

The Uppercase Living booth

Some of my happy helpers!

Halloween

The boys really had fun trick-or-treating. Noah wasn't too sure about it at first, but he soon got the hang of it. And he actually wore his hat!

Noah would eat a piece of candy for a while, but as soon as he got more, he'd want to throw the one he was eating away and get a new piece.

"Luke, I am your father."

This is one of our neighbors. He cut a hole in a table for his head, and he also cut a hole underneath the pumpkin so he could stick his hand out to give candy to the kids. It was very clever.