Babies are like Snowflakes

We have an almost two year old, Cooper. I have learned a lot from him. Things like when he wakes up at 3 in the morning there is usually a reason, and that reason may or may not be that he pooped in his diaper and the aforementioned poop is now on his feet, his hands, and his sheets. I have learned other things like how many times a 19 month old can spin in a circle before he falls down (2.5 revolutions). But Cooper was our first child and Sarah and I were excited and because of this hung on Cooper's every coo and movement (except that one at 3 am).

About 3 months ago things got slightly more complicated, we had our second baby boy child kid, Micah. Now this kid has been a whole different beast, not that he is a beast, unless of course he is on the football field where he will go for the throat. But regardless I have learned a lot of new things from Micah that the Coop decided to leave for his little brother to teach us. Here are some of them:

1. Babies cry when they are bored.
I am a lot of times distracted by what Cooper is doing, not because I love him more, but because Coop is strolling across the top of the couch or scaling the fireplace. So while I am trying to encourage calculated risks for Coop, Micah is yelling at me to do something with him.

2. Babies like to sleep in armpits.
It may be the amazing scent of Old Spice's "Pure Sport" deodorant, it may be the tickle of my underarm hair on his cheek, it may the feeling of security it brings to the boy (but I doubt it) but whatever it is Micah loves to sleep in my armpit. As a matter of fact there is seldom a place he sleeps more soundly, Sarah had trouble sleeping last week and I suggested she try it, apparently that becomes "weird" and "gross" once you hit 9 months.

3. Babies hate 10 minute car rides.
Got an hour and a half drive ahead of us? No problem, Micah is a champ. Need to drive to Michigan for the weekend? Great, Micah will sleep the whole way. But wherever we go the first 10 minutes is almost guaranteed to be meltdown city, there is no solace, no place to hide, you have to sit and listen to your son cry until his stopwatch hits 10 minutes.

I have learned a lot about myself from my kids and they can't even fully converse with me yet. What things has parenthood taught you? If you aren't a parents what things are you most looking forward to?

Merry Christmas to Coop's eye

I love having boys because it is times like these that begin to shape who they are. Cuts aren't fun, but the adventure that led to the cut makes it all worth it.




Fireplaces have sharp edges, Coop knows that now and will jump further away next time.

Reality YM High School Review week 7

Teaching Series: Greater Than (Week 2 of 4)

Sermon in a Sentence: In order to become greater, you must become less, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Length: 20 min.

Message:It is of utmost importance to give, it is of huge importance to share the things you have and the wealth you possess. The time you volunteer, the money you give, the skills you offer are all valuable things, but doing them for the sake of being recognized isn't the point of doing them. We are called to give out of being the "least of these" so we must give from an "I'm not worthy of the grace God has given me" standpoint.

Games/fun: Assassin. The goal of the game is to be the last surviving person. The game is still going as Connor King, Cody Nash, and Wesley Viau are still trying to assassinate each other. A winner is expected by Christmas.
Worship Band: Scott Bergstrom, Peter Anderson, Matt Hull and Stephanie Nash

On Deck: Greater than Week 3; Everyone deserves to be served.

God and the Giants

It is no secret, I love the San Francisco Giants as much as Bono loves sunglasses and religious ambiguity. My whole life I have loved baseball, the situational aspect of the game, the what-ifs and the could haves, the hand eye coordination, the 3-1 counts and sacrifice bunts. I am getting excited just thinking about it. I am even more excited because as some of you may be aware, the Giants are playing for their first World Series Championship in 56 years and tonight could be the night.

Now you may think to yourself, "Peter, why would you like a baseball team for so long that hasn't ever won a world series in the town that it currently resides?" or "Didn't the Giants lose 100 games the year you were born? Surely that can't be a good sign." The reason I love the Giants is because I love them. Do they have any bearing on anything else that happens in the world other than releasing endorphins to hundreds of thousands of Giants fans tonight? No. If they don't win the World Series will I go into a serious depression where my main source of nutrients are derived from the special sauce of a KFC double down? Probably.

But that's just it, the Giants don't matter, the dodgers definitely don't matter (also I didn't capitalize dodgers on purpose, they aren't worthy of such an honor) baseball doesn't matter, Brian Wilson's beard, where emotion goes to die, doesn't matter either, but don't tell it that, it may eat your soul.

John 5:44 says this, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

We are called to glorify God first, can we do that as the Giants win and in the process ruin every dodger fan's comeback since 1963 of, "You've never even won a world series in San Francisco."?

Sure we can.

But God must be glorified through it all.

Go Giants!

Bless God!