On holiday

Our blog will be unattended for the next several weeks to a month with sporadic posts during the summer (not that I've been a faithful blogger these past months...). We are moving out of our apartment in two weeks. More precisely, we'll be moved out of our apartment two weeks from today, and catching some daytime zzzzzs in preparation for our all night, into the next day drive to Indiana. It is one of those times in life when there is much excitement and much stress.

To update you, our blog readers, on our fall plans, we happily relate that Stephen will pursue full-time doctoral studies for a second year thanks to a fellowship that covers a chunk of our living expenses. He will also work part-time here teaching AP government and political philosophy.

Now for our summer tasks, beyond having an insane amount of fun with family.

Stephen:
-attend a week-long grad student conference in Providence, Rhode Island
-study French and Latin
-find a rental house to move into when we return
-research and choose health insurance plan for family (input and comments welcome)
-much, much more related to preparing for the fall (teaching prep, reading, narrowing dissertation topics...)

Sarah (if this were in order of importance, mine would obviously be above Stephen's):
-Sunbathe
-Eat good food
-Exercise whenever I want

haha. no, seriously, I'll be assisting with finding a house and insurance and...

-Printing digital pictures from the past 2 years and labeling them in albums (nothing fancy except maybe our Europe pics)
-READING
-Pretending to study French

Nora:
-Being THE flower girl
-Playing
-Wearing a long, white dress in Jeremy's wedding
-Swimming
-Did I mention Nora's in her uncle's wedding?

Joseph:
-Learning to walk
-Learning to say "momma"
-Learning to like more food beyond bread

The stars of the blog

What's new with Nora:
-After a couple days of initial nervousness, Nora now loves getting around the pool with her ring and pretending she's a dolphin.
-She loves pretending most anything. Her imagination is vivid and very entertaining :)
-Her mind is a sponge these days. I'm thinking I should start being more intentional about teaching her soon.
-I find myself starting to depend on her for help and expect her to do many things for herself. For better or worse, natural disposition and circumstances are molding her into the typical firstborn.
-Nora and Joseph are playing together for longer periods of time every day. Before I put Joseph down for his morning nap, she was crawling after him and tackling him to the ground. And he was laughing!

Joseph news:
-The boy now has eight teeth and I suspect more might be coming in. I think he is preparing to have steak for his first birthday.
-Joseph is expanding his speech beyond shrieks and grunts. He can say "dada" intentionally. He also has started other babbling sounds like baba, gaga, etc., but nothing remotely close to "mama." The little bugger.
-He can wave now, though he rarely performs outside of his family.
-Joseph is a speed crawler these days. He loves to pull himself up and cruise along furniture, but overall is not getting too adventurous in the walking department. I'm okay with that. That said, his standing/ cruising action has resulted in a couple shiners on his forehead. It's that age.
-Above all, Joseph LOVES making noise. Banging objects (anything he can lift) on any surface (the floor, his crib, his highchair, tables) is a favorite as well as pulling the metal bowls and pans out of the play kitchen onto the hard floor.
-He's making progress learning to give kisses. So cute!

Happy 4th Anniversary

...to my beloved and my friend. You're an amazing man, Stephen Shipp. I love you! And I look forward to all our tomorrows whatever they may hold.

Thanks for the beautiful flowers and for coming home for lunch today. I relish every moment I have with you.

You want a lollipop?

So, maybe I'm a bad mother (or in my kids eyes, an awesome one), but I let Joseph taste his first "dum dum" lollipop today. This picture doesn't do justice to his look of wonder and delight. It's so great to be a kid when the highlight of your life is a piece of confection on a stick! I have so much fun with these kiddos.

For the few of you who read this blog, please pray for Stephen as he nears the end of the semester. He has the obstacles of four finals, three papers (and a bibliography), one scholarship interview, and a job interview (including teaching a high school government class) to surmount in less than two weeks. Within those two weeks we should also know whether he will be a part-time student and full-time teacher or a full-time student and part-time teacher or some other combination entirely. We have a bit up in the air at present, but it looks very likely we'll be in Dallas. Stephen is taking a May Term class and then we'll be heading to see family for most of the summer (while Stephen knocks away at independent language study). It's odd to still be operating on a student schedule after all these years, and yet, it is so much different being in the grad student phase. It is a rewarding time though. As a couple and as a family, we're growing and learning much. Stephen is the most awesome man ever. Please pray for him.