Always Forgiven - Blake on the Guitar

The real lyrics (Blake take's some artist license here and there):

I don’t deserve to be Your servant
And how much less to be Your child
Anger and wrath, sure condemnation
Should be my portion, my just reward
Never have seen it, never will know it
Your loving kindness enfolds my life

All You have shown me is
Grace, love and mercy
Now and forever I am Your child
Freely You pour out
Your loving kindness
Father of grace
You welcome me in

All of the sin I have committed
Was placed upon Your righteous Son
And now You see me through His perfection
As if I’d never done any wrong
Always forgiven, always accepted
No fear of judgment before Your throne

The Adventures of Monkey-Talk-To-You

The last 24 hours have been rather anxious at our house. The beloved "Monkey-Talk-To-You" (hand puppet) went missing sometime yesterday afternoon. This is Blake's favorite bedtime cuddle toy. Each night Monkey-Talk-To-You asks Blake if he can sleep with him, and each night Blake eagerly says "YES!" and gives the monkey a big hug. But last night Monkey TTY disappeared. Monkey was presumably  in the playroom, and Mommy tucked Blake in  for the night without the little puppet friend at Blake's side.  (Blake said "he's probably standing up on Blake's work bench working real hard." Oh.) There were a few tear when lights went out without him, but Blake did pretty well considering.

Mom looked high and low, but no MTTY. She pulled apart cushions, looked in each toy bin, in train table drawers, in dump trucks, outside on the porch, in the wagon in the garage, but still no monkey. And then the next day by nap time Mom still hadn't found MTTY. This time he said, "Monkey Talk To You in basket." Oh, basket. (Not helpful.) 

After tearing apart the play room and living room AGAIN, Mom took one last peek under the toy at the bottom of a bucket ("basket"?) of instruments, only to find MTTY almost flat against the bottom under a toy  that I'm sure hadn't been played with in at least 2 weeks. PHEW!

Just out of curiosity I didn't take MTTY out of the bucket, but covered him back up with toys. When Blake woke up from his nap I asked him to go down and find Monkey Talk To You. Wouldn't you know the stinker went right to the bucket of instruments and pulled him out from under that last toy? "Blake, how did he get there?" we asked. "Blake put him there!" was the cheerful reply. Oh.

Here is some video of MTTY getting his first washing machine bath a couple weeks ago. Blake was quite concerned at first, but eventually he was okay with it, and MTTY was back in his bed, warm and dry, by nap time.

Carter - Video Silliness

When he isn't eating, he's jumping...


and jumping...


...or laughing!


For whatever reason Carter occasionally freaks out in his chair when we are trying to feed him. I don't know if he just likes making the chair shake, or what else is going on in that little baby brain. But it is pretty intense. It is a little hard to tell, but Carter is doing it all himself - I'm not touching him or the chair!



Oh, Carter you are SO MUCH FUN!

Our Budding Worship Leader

Here is Blake's rendition of the Sovereign Grace worship song, "Jesus Thank You."



If you listen carefully you can make out some of the words, "...completely satisfied, Jesus thank you, Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus thank you." To hear the original you can go here.

This song plays over and over again all night on an iPod in his room (per Blake's insistence, I should add). I must confess this is one of my favorite songs on the Sovereign Grace "Worship God" album, but I didn't expect my occasional re-playing of the CD tract in the car to turn into this obsession by our toddler!

Kisses

Blake leaned in to give Carter a hug good night and Carter eagerly reached out for his big brother, ready with an open-mouthed kiss!  I love that these boys love each other so...

Mr. Happy (a.k.a. Carter)

Despite continued tummy trouble (a c. diff infection that won't go away) this little boy is VERY happy 75% of the time. He is easy to make laugh, especially when he is getting tired.


Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Blake in "Big Church"

The other Sunday we missed the memo that there wouldn't be child care in the second service. So, to Blake's delight, he got to sit in "big church" with Mommy and Daddy. He did really well during the message - I was shocked. But a true highlight was watching him worship with us! I'm grateful there were a couple extra chairs in front of us - it allowed our wiggly toddler to have a little more freedom than he might have normally.


Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.


We didn't teach him to raise his hands, honest. He just saw other people doing it and I guess he figured it was the right thing to do! I must confess, I wasn't focusing on my own worship as much as I should have been, but MAN, isn't he cute!?

Our One Man Band

Mom Mom gave Blake an "early birthday" gift of a GUITAR! Since Blake loves it when I pull out my guitar (to play over and over and over the only 3 songs I know), we knew this gift would be a big hit. And it was! He has hardly put it down in the two weeks he has owned it, and we have already had to change the batteries once.

For some reason Blake thinks the best place to play the guitar is on top of his little step in his play room. I guess it is like a stage? It is so cute to see him bend his knees and lean back a little, jamming like a pro!

And now he wears it for our evening dance parties with Dada.

Blake jamming with his guitar from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.


Then today Mike had the great idea of giving Blake "drum sticks" (a.k.a. chopsticks).  Looks like we have a new type of noise in the house now!

Drum sticks from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Introducing...Carter James Thompson!

After the news has already hit Facebook, and the church Quick Read, I am finally getting around to bringing our blog up to speed more than a week later... Carter James Thompson has arrived! He eluded us for a while as twice in the preceding two weeks I was in the hospital (in the middle of the night) with "false" labor. But finally, on June 23rd, Carter decided come during normal, waking hours. This was a day after Mike's birthday, and just a couple days into my 38th week of pregnancy. 

The stats:

Carter James Thompson was born at 5:50pm on June 23rd. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 19.25 inches long. (And no, we don't plan to call him "CJ" - just "Carter.") Mom and baby are both doing very well!

Labor was relatively short (if you don't count the three weeks of contractions leading up to delivery); I was admitted a little before 2pm and Carter was born by 6pm. I enjoyed the blessing of an epidural (which is why I am smiling below). Labor story and more pics will follow, but I thought I should delay no longer and get at least some pics up!

His nose, like Blake's, was squished to one side at birth and has slowly been moving to a more "normal" position.

Introducing Blake to his new baby brother is among the most precious moments of my life. Blake came to visit a few hours after Carter was born, and I am so glad Dada captured the first moments on video.

Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

After initial greetings, Baby Carter "gave" Blake a trash truck and a Popsicle, to secure Blake's eternal love and affection.

Blake gets trash truck from Carter from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

And Blake gave Baby Carter a blue elephant (thanks, Grandma and Pop Pop!)

Blake loves his little brother and gives him lots of kisses and is always excited to see "Baby Carter." I don't think he makes the connection right now that Carter is the reason Mommy can't hold hold him (as I recover from delivery) or that Mommy can't spend as much time with him. So far Blake is consistently gentle and fascinated by his new little brother. 

We are so blessed to have these two beautiful boys! 

Summer Fun (and Cereal)

I know the big news right now is Carter's arrival, but I had this post in draft form and wanted to post our life in order...

A quick story first. Blake loves mints, and has learned that Pop Pop always has mints in his car and usually has a mint in his pocket when he comes to visit. The other day there were two mints on the counter, leftover from Pop Pop's last visit. One was a white lifesaver type, the other a spiral red and white peppermint. I asked Blake which one he wanted (pointing to each, do you want "this one" or "this one.") To my surprise Blake responded "RED ONE!" (pointing to the peppermint). I guess he is learning his colors after all! Yeah!

Here is a rated "G" photo of some fun in our kiddie pool on the deck. In the afternoon, once the deck is in the shade, this is a great way to keep Blake amused. I love letting him play naked! (Why bother getting a diaper or a bathing suit soaked if you don't have to?) I have some great video of him running around, dunking the side of his hea in the pool, pouring water from one cup to another and over the side of the deck, and drinking out of buckets, but we'll just keep that in the fam.

For my birthday we went to the Rio for dinner and Blake really enjoyed the live entertainment. Here he is having a "dance party" on Daddy's shoulders:

Dance Party at the Rio with Daddy from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Blake usually just watches me eat my cereal with milk, while I give him dry cereal to eat from his tray. However, the other day he really wanted to dip a cheerio in Mama's milk to eat it that way. Since he shouldn't really have "milk" I decided to give him his own bowl with rice milk...and cheerios...and a spoon. And I was amazed at how well he did! Yeah, big boy!

 

Here is he enjoying a smoothie. It doesn't always turn out this messy, but when it does Blake typically asks for a mirror so that he can see it for himself!

Air Show

We took Blake to an air show in May. I have been wanting to go to this air show for years, but for one reason or another we never made it, until now. And Blake is a great was a great age to enjoy the big, loud airplanes. Little did we know that the shuttle transportation from parking to the base would be by way of....drum roll...SCHOOL BUSES!! Yeah, school buses! The ride was definitely a highlight of the whole day.

Mike got some great pics of the airplanes. While I was struggling to even keep the planes in the camera view-finder, Mike's pics of the planes in flight looked like this (no cropping involved).

Dada and Blake toured a number of helicopters and airplanes.

Hehe. Isn't he cute?

Blake kept saying "Big airplanes! More!"

It was a very warm day, and we took shelter/shade under the wings of the aircraft to wait for the Thunderbird show. Unfortunately it was running very late, and we had someplace to be, so we had to leave before the Thunderbirds actually took flight.

Of course, as soon as we got in the shuttle buses to leave the air show the Thunderbirds made their appearance, so we ended up watching the show (what little we could see) from the windows of our school bus. But I don't think Blake really cared!

Memorial Day at Weekend at the Beach

We wanted to get Blake to the beach at least once this summer, and since we don't know when Baby #2 will make his appearance it seemed like Memorial Day weekend would be the last/best chance to do that. The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time.

As soon as we arrived we went down to see the "ocean" which we had been telling Blake about all day (as we were packing, as we were driving, etc.). He eagerly ventured close to the water, even splashing in the puddles made by the waves without any apparent concern. 

Intro to Ocean2 from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

I'm not sure what happened in his little head, but the next day he was petrified of the ocean and we couldn't get him near it for the rest of the trip.

But he loved the sand! Sometimes it was hard to tell if Dada or Blake was having more fun...

We set up a small pool at the beach and to our surprise this is what he did! His own rendition of a baptism, I think.

Blake dunking himself in baby pool from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

We love that he loves the water.

Since he wasn't too keen on the ocean (it was too cold to swim in in anyway), we stayed in the condo kiddie pool much of the time, and Blake was eager to go to the pool any time we mentioned it. And we had some sweet times with Mom Mom!

And here is the big boy eating a hot dog and french fries on the pool deck, sitting in a big boy chair and dipping his hot dog in "sauce" (ketchup) all by himself.

We took him to rides a couple of times, and he proceeded to ask for them each day. We actually put him on a few rides by himself (even though I think he was technically too short for all of them - the attendants didn't seem to care). I was shocked by how fast the kiddie rides went! Here are a couple clips that aren't stellar videography/photography, but Blake loves them so they have earned a spot on the blog.

Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

The boat was definitely a favorite.

Blake on boat ride from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

We enjoyed introducing him to boardwalk treats. 

Blake with water ice 2 from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Like Blake would say "Yeah rides!" "Yeah Mom Mom!" "Yeah sand!" "Yeah ocean!" We had a great time and we are so grateful we were able to have an extended time away together before Baby #2 arrives.

"Dada"

If ever Blake points to my computer and says "Dada" I know just what he is asking for - he wants to watch these clips of him and Dada playing upstairs. Even though they were taken about a month ago I figure they were worthy of a spot on the blog, given how much Blake loves them.

Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.



Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Thanks, Dada, for being so eager to roll, throw, tickle, dance, or do whatever it takes to make our little boy smile! You are lots and lots of fun!

I decided to include this brief clip of me and Blake just because it is one of the rare occasions that I am on the other side of the camera...


Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Dance Party Before Bed

I think he looks tired, don't you? (When he points up and says "on" he is asking us to put the ceiling fan on.)

Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

And he only gets crazier...who does he learn it from?

Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

The Delighted Destroyer

Blake has picked up saying "oh no!" whenever he sees (or makes) a mess. The other night he terrorized his drawer of toys in the kitchen, only to exclaim "OH NO!" over and over again as he beheld the destruction he had wrecked. And then he would put the toys back in the drawer only to take them right back out again with the same "surprise." As you can see, Mom and Dad play along, too.


Untitled from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Blake's First Trip to the Zoo

This weekend we took Blake to the zoo for the first time. The metro ride down was DEFINITELY a highlight!

(I was giving a play-by-play to "Mom Mom" on the phone.)

We weren't sure how he would do, but it seems Blake is still a little young to appreciate the zoo... he showed the more excitement over a big red door near the elephant cage, and for helicopters flying overhead, than for any of the animals he saw. That's okay. He continues to "talk" about the metro. ("Choo choo!") 

For only the second time ever in his short life the little boy fell asleep in his stroller! He fell slept as we were walking out of the zoo, stayed asleep for the long walk back to the metro, and then even slept for most of the metro ride home, only to wake up to the happy realization that he was back on the "choo choo!"

Walking?!?

I'm not sure, when, exactly, we can claim that our little one is officially walking. He showed promise a month or so ago when he started to take a couple steps on his own, but then he didn't go much beyond that. But in the last couple of days he suddenly got bold and started taking a few more steps.

Today he was getting a kick out of knocking over blocks that I stacked for him. The he realized he could knock over the blocks by walking into them and I was trying so hard to catch that on video. And to my delight, this is what I got!

Walking Through Toy Obstacles from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

I couldn't believe that he kept going! Especially given the toy obstacle course that was in his way. He still walks like a drunken sailor, but he is the cutest little drunken sailor we've ever seen! He's not walking consistently, by any means, but he is making great progress and it is so fun to watch!

Just for some more fun here is a clip of Blake pounding out a beat with Dad to one of his favorite songs (Sandra Boynton's silly song, "Rhinoceros Tap.") At one point Dad tries to help by holding Blake's hands, but you can see that Blake doesn't need any help...

Tapping out a Tune with Dad from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Video Montage

In case there is any doubt out there that this is one adorable little monkey, I thought I should post some evidence in Mommy's defense. He definitely keeps us smiling!

We call these his "happy feet" - he often claps his feet together when he is excited, and we just think it is too cute.

Happy Feet from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Here Blake is pushing his "Cozy Coup" car through our back yard. It is a big yard, and he pushed the car all the way from the garage to the far corner, and then he happily pushed it much of the way back to the garage again, with just a little help getting up the slight hill. (As my mom usually says, "There are child labor laws, you know!") He doesn't mind the cold at all, and will happily stay out as long as mom and dad are willing to bear the chill.

Blake Pushing Cozy Coup in the Yard from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

This is Blake doing the "worm." For some reason Blake has decided it is fun to flop himself all over our bedroom floor, giggling as he goes and enjoying the surprised laughs he gets from Mom and Dad.

Baby Worm from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

And lastly, this is another glimpse at our disco fiend, jamming to some tunes on the television.

Jamming to the TV tunes from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

Despite the title of the post I'm adding a non-video pic, too. Today I gave Blake some humus for the first time, and he really enjoyed it, and of course he got it all over his face (not surprising). But what WAS surprising is that he broke out in a rash everywhere the humus touched! It was "roasted garlic" humus, with no alarming ingredients, and he has had lots of garlic already with no negative reaction. So I'm not sure if he is allergic to chic peas (that would be unusual), or perhaps the vague ingredient "spices," low on the ingredient list, included something that bothered him. Hmm...this is the first "real" (skin) allergy we've encountered so far.

Thankfully his lower left molar is now almost completely cut through and he is sleeping much better (which in Blake-terms means waking up only once a night instead of 3-4 times when he was cutting the tooth). Mike and I are VERY grateful to have our sleep back! I rescheduled his 15-month check up from this week to next because I didn't want to deal with a shot-fever / cranky baby at the same time that we were dealing with endless night wakings from his tooth, so 15-month stats will come next week.

Some Blake Tricks

So I have to explain a few things. First of all, I have given up embedding video directly with Blogger. If anyone knows the secret of how to do this (something about re-sizing the video?), I would be grateful to learn from you. For now, I am resorting to Vimeo.

Next, I suppose I could have edited this video down a bit, but I thought it was all just too cute. I love his laugh. I am pretty pleased that he roared on command, but I really wanted him to do a little dance (why I asked him about the music), which I wasn't able to draw out. Usually, if the radio is off and he wants it on he puts his hands in the air and waves them back and forth as if he is dancing. But that will have to come in a future post! Now, without any further ado, here is our little star!

Blake with his Walk-Behind Toy (1) from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

And here is another clip. "Dada" just sneaked away to another room to try to get some work done (Blake kept wanting to be held and play with Dada), but you can't pull anything past this little boy! And the "Gug Gug Gug" noise he is making is his rendition of the sound of putting gas in the tank of his little walk-behind toy (which, of course, has a gas tank)!

Gug Gug Gug from Sarah Thompson on Vimeo.

This is life these days - he is generally a very silly, happy, fun little boy. Today he started giggling when I bent down to wipe up the floor around his high chair - not sure what he thought was funny about that, but it was very cute! He loves to dance and always "asks" us to turn on the radio if it isn't already on. His favorite, however, is listening to a silly song CD that we play on the computer.

Also, he's (barely) learned to scribble with crayons. He can hold the crayon in a way that he manages to make some marks on the paper, but there is still much room for growth. But he loves it, and it is fun to see him developing his "fine" motor skills and to see his excitement as he realizes that he has made marks on the paper.

Blake is starting to make a profession out of whining and Mike are talking about how to be more proactive in discipline to teach him this isn't an option. But he sure can communicate what he wants!  We will  need much grace and wisdom to know how to honor God as we train up our little boy according to God's word, and this is just the very beginning. It is all a joy, and a privilege to be entrusted to care for this little Gift From God!

Blake Got That Boom Boom Pow

Here is Blake gettin' his groove on. So far his favorite music genres seem to be techno and polka. (We like to expose him to a broad range of cultures and preferences.)