Sleep Over Party

Jackson and his best friend Patrick had a sleep over at our house a couple of weeks ago. Both boys had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures... we also went to the discovery museum in Santa Maria, but I forgot to bring my camera *snap* bummer.

A Surreal Reality

Today is my 30th birthday. Perhaps if circumstances were a little different I'd be blogging about how old I feel and how my body has changed, but I'm just grateful for one more year of life.

My brother, Jason, died in a car accident at 1:30 in the morning on Valentine's Day.

Reality as I know it has changed forever.

I'm not really sure how to process this all or how to interact with/react to others. I've been in their shoes before and always thought, "I don't know what to say." I still don't know what to say.

The days come in waves of surreal moments ... waiting for my brother to call and tell everyone it was just a big prank (he was like that) and then waves of emotion with the reality of his death emanate and tears flooding my eyes.

Micah is obviously too young to understand, but I did explain to Jackson what happened. I could tell he understood intellectually (we talk about heaven a lot I guess), but I don't think he understood emotionally except for the fact that I was crying and that made him a little sad.

We've decided to leave the kids with church family and Colin and I will travel alone to Milwaukee to mourn with family. My thoughts are that we can then be free to go wherever and whenever and stay however long we need to and not worry about nap schedules and bedtimes, etc.

Surprisingly, facebook has been a huge healing balm for me (besides the obvious fact that God is sovereign in every way and in everything). Jason's life really did touch a lot of people in so many different ways and I've been able to see that more through facebook. It comforts me to know that other people share in the sorrow and to hear the funny stories about Jason.

Yet, I can't help but feel a little unworthy (for lack of a better word) of my sorrow because I think of his wife, Ericka, and how much pain and sorrow she must be feeling. The bond a husband and wife have is SO much stronger than a sister and brother (as it should be). I CANNOT imagine what she is going through.

My reality has changed forever, but not NEARLY in the same way as my sister-in-law's. I've just barely begun to wrap my brain around the fact that I'll never see my brother here on earth again, but I don't think I'll ever be able to comprehend what it's like to wake up one morning and miss the other half of me ... his dirty laundry still in the hamper, leftovers in the fridge, toothbrush still in the bathroom, ...

My brother's in heaven... he's not in pain ... he's not missing us ... he's worshiping our LORD who is in control of all things in Heaven and on earth, both life and death. It brings me comfort to know that.

I pray for my sister-in-law and all of those who love Jason and remain here on earth, because the reality is that we are in pain and we do miss him. Please pray for us ... may we cling to the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, that one day there will be a new Heaven and a new earth where no one in Him will be in pain and no one will be missed and all will worship Him.

Nap Transitions at 15 1/2 Months

Micah transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap this past week. He will be 16 months on the 25th.

I started to notice his need for this transition when he was taking a really long time to go down for his second nap in the afternoon. Prior to this he'd take two 2 hour naps one from 10 - 12 and the other from 2 - 4.

I tried just giving him one nap right away, but then he was crabby that evening and sometimes even into the next day. So, I made his morning nap shorter since I wanted him to eventually take his long nap in the afternoon when Jackson was sleeping (although, I think he would have naturally taken a longer nap in the morning and a shorter nap in the afternoon).

For about a week or so he was taking one 45 minute to an hour nap in the morning from 11 - 12 (I'd have to wake him up from that nap otherwise he'd sleep longer and not take an afternoon nap) and a longer 2 hour nap in the afternoon from 2 - 4. He did that until he was having a hard time falling asleep or woke up early on a regular basis from his second nap. (There were even a few nights that it disrupted his night time sleep too, but that may have also been due to sickness/teething.)

Every once in awhile I'd skip his morning nap to see how he handled it. Once he could skip a morning nap without being cranky that night and/or the next day, we tried skipping the morning nap for two or three days in a row. That naturally happened on the weekends because 1. Saturdays can be pretty busy, and 2. he has been skipping his morning nap at church for several months now, so then we'd just skip Monday's morning nap as well.

It's been one full week with only one nap in the afternoon and although for a couple of them he only slept 2 hours (again I think that was due to sickness/teething) for the most part he is sleeping 3 hours for his afternoon nap, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Meta-sepatary

The Monarch butterfly has a migration spot every year at Pismo beach, so I took the boys to see them a couple of weekends ago. Here's my interview with Jackson on the life cycle of a butterfly.
(By the way, when he doesn't know how to say a big word he inserts "sepatary" at the end of it.)

Here are a few more pictures of the butterflies and Pismo beach:
Make sure you look very closely at the above picture because although at first glance it seems like there are only a hand full of butterflies there are many, many more.