Life Lately: February 2020

This photo makes me laugh.

Angel has a couple trips this semester for track and field tournaments, and my grand reflection on this is: Man, I remember last year feeling nervous about him being gone and having one baby to take care of. Now that I have two, I'm like, "Why was I so nervous last year? Only one baby would be a piece of cake!"

I think it just goes to show that we are constantly learning, adapting, and growing in our abilities. My other recent reflection on parenthood is to notice that one result of parenting is that it does a pretty good job of showing us that we aren't nearly such wonderful people as we would like to imagine that we already are...nope...we've still got a lot of growing to do! Good thing God's not finished with us yet.

Cyrus got a bike  for his Christmas gift from us this year and has really been taking off on it! Every time we leave the house he asks, "Bike?" and is somewhat disappointed if the response is that no, we aren't taking a bike ride right now. I did make a video of one of the first times we let him take the bike outside on the street.

Coronavirus: It's been interesting living in Asia during the coronavirus episode. Of course, the effect of the virus is worst for those who are sick and those who have died from the disease, but the effects have reached far beyond the illness that the disease causes, and is affecting general life for many who aren't ill. It is having far-reaching affects on various industries due to closures and travel restrictions. My sister and her husband teach at an international school in China, but were visiting us when the news about the coronavirus first began spreading and measures started being taken. Their 10 day trip turned into a 36 day trip away from their home as they scrambled to figure out teaching online and continuing through "normal" working life but without their own laptops, without their textbooks, and away from their own home for an extended period of time. We have enjoyed having them visiting us, but are sad about the reason, and sad to see so many people and businesses hurting in Asia right now. Many large events that took a great deal of work to organize have been canceled. Hoping that all the measures that have been taken will be sufficient and that 'normal' life resumes soon. We visited the hospital last week for an appointment for Glenn, and all of us had to have our temperatures taken at the door. Wherever you go, you see people wearing masks--and masks are sold out at nearly every pharmacy around town (Lizzy and Joey went looking to buy some to bring back with them to China, because where they live it's currently a law that you have to wear a mask when outside).

Glenn has remained small-but-mighty since before his birth--currently coming in around the 3rd percentile for weight and 1st percentile for height. so it's probably not a surprise that he's still wearing 0-3 month clothes and I won't be surprised if he hangs out in them for at least another month. He's also not holding up his head or controlling his neck as well as you might expect a 3 month old to, so we're on a more vigilant routine of giving him exercise times throughout the day. Propping him up on the nursing pillow to help motivate him to hold up his head. We encourage him while he's holding up his head, clapping and saying, "Good job!" So, obviously, now Cyrus will plop himself down in the middle of the nursing pillow and hold up his head as high as he can so that he will get applause, too. That cracks me up!

He has the best baby grins!

I recently made a "Day in the Life" video, which was funny to me because until I was actually putting the video together, I didn't quite realize how much or how little I do some things throughout the day. I think it's a good snapshot of our lives right now. I'm not quite sure why two babies feels so much busier than one baby, but it does!

I think it's something like, just when you're feeling comfortable with and good at something, something else comes along to throw you for a loop and get you out of your comfort zone. In this case, that "something" is my little Glenn. We have been taking videos more lately and I'm glad, because I know these babies are growing all too fast! You can subscribe to our Seven in All channel on youtube if you want to have a chance to see more, because I won't post all of them here. 

We had a big adventure this past week when Angel had a day off of work--took the whole crew (there were 15 of us in three cars) out to a waterpark in celebration of a plethora of family birthdays. This was our "longest" roadtrip with both little boys--we were in the car for a total of almost 5 hours during the day, so not that long, but probably a good length for a first trip with two of them. I realized that I probably should be a bit of a "better" mom and actually pack an activity or something for Cyrus for a long car ride like that. I saw the other older kids in the other cars had packed their own little backpacks with a couple toys or coloring stuff and I was like, "Hmmm....too bad Cyrus didn't have the forethought to pack himself some activities for the long car ride!" ha! Okay, fine, at this age, yes, that ought to still be Mom's job. I'm still new to this gig, and it shows sometimes. I gave him a wipe from the diaper bag to play with and I did have snacks to feed him on the the road so I wasn't totally without resources...but honestly they both did really good.

The waterpark was a long day and at one point they both fell asleep--Cyrus still can't really get through the day without a nap. Good thing we had remembered to bring a stroller (we're not total newbies) and he just slept in the stroller with my parents keeping an eye on him while we went on the big water slides! I think big days like this will be a little easier in the post-nap era.

And I'll end this update with this drink, which is lovely, and made me laugh, because this is the drink I ordered for Cyrus at a new restaurant we visited with my sister. It was a quirky little restaurant on the beach, and I ordered Cyrus an orange juice. It arrived a little bit extra-fancy, considering it was a toddler's drink, fresh flower and everything!

How has your life been lately??