little pumpkins:

Same local patch, two different days.  We haven't been able to make any of the big ones this year.  October flew by!

community literacy project:

A couple of months ago, our pastor approached me about being a contact person for a literacy project at a local public elementary school.  The event is a partnership a youth-mentoring organization where English language-learner kindergarteners receive bookshelves to decorate and stock with free books and free school supplies.  Their parents attend a workshop while older siblings do activities and younger ones are in childcare.  A partnering church like ours provides the volunteers, refreshments, and activities in addition to a good portion of the supplies and books.  This was our second year doing it with our local public elementary school.  We had almost 70 families sign up, and almost all of them came that day.  With just our 20 volunteers handling the 200 people plus all the stations and duties until the latecomer volunteers arrived, it was a tall order.

I have a heart for the children of our community and had been praying about plugging in more at church, but I didn't have a clear understanding initially of what I'd be doing (maybe a good thing).  I knew I was supposed to manage volunteer sign-ups for the project, but it was so much more involved.  I was to coordinate everything from start to finish on our end.  There a lot of project management and supervising.  Thankfully I have the background, although I am quite rusty.  Planning parties, managing the home, and even homeschooling are not the same as this type of work, because I do not have to manage large groups of people whom I don't know that well.  And the ones I do know well, I am hesitant to manage in a professional way for fear of hurting relationships.  But I was called, so as cold as the water was, the only way to adapt was to dive right in.

The majority of English language learners are Mexican and Asian, and I called Manny's mom for some simple Spanish phrases.  The younger kids can translate for their parents, but we sometimes split the kids from the adults, and it was helpful to have people who could chat with Spanish speakers and answer questions comfortably.  We had about eight bilingual volunteers, which was just enough for registration and guiding people where they needed to go.  

So being a contact point in charge of sign-up sheets became managing a book drive, writing communications in the church newsletter/bulletin/group page, managing the pre-painting of the bookshelves, ensuring all the supplies were procured from childcare snacks to event tables, finding or coming up with games/crafts/activities, transporting materials, assigning leads and teams, instructing volunteers and calling to double-check, filling in for others, giving someone a ride who ended up falling ill that day, and basically running around for three hours the day of the event.  But it got done despite my shortcomings.  We received strong positive feedback from the school and a lot of smiles and thanks from the kids and their parents.  We promoted our church's Harvest Festival and location.  Most of all, we took an opportunity to build bridges and pour love on these families, so all in all it was a success.

I grew a lot through this project.  I was thankful for the opportunity, but with all my other responsibilities, I was stretched thin and couldn't focus as much as I wanted.  I had to talk shop during preparatory events/meetings while nursing the baby and/or managing the older kids (thankfully they're pretty used to being out, so they didn't cause me much trouble).  I don't have a babysitter, but the kids are learning how to tag along and be involved.  I had to rearrange my schedule, find workarounds, let chores pile up, and sometimes pray for a miracle.  We had to make a few trips out to buy or transport event supplies.  People without small children and an sore back, wrist, and foot may not understand how taking the kids to run errands literally hurts.  There were challenges or surprises at every turn, and each time God provided just in time, reminding me of His graciousness and mercy.

"If you want to get to know people, you have to serve."  That is what a friend said over lunch after church one day.  At the time, I had one of those I'll-nod-now-but-think-about-it-later  moments.  We've known people who have loved and served greatly but still felt isolated.  However, in this case, I got to meet and chat with all sorts of people I might not have otherwise.  But it wasn't a bed of roses--there was work to be done, and I had a lot of people to email, call, follow up with, and a lot of things I had to make sure were in place.  During the course of the planning, our family got sick.  I was so sleep-deprived and didn't manage my communication with one team member/friend well.  In the end, I took the hit for her going out of bounds.  It wasn't worth any further debate.  

The leadership at our church did a lot to help me promote and prepare for the event.  I was really blessed by that, especially when they took one night (our church meets on Wednesday nights as well) to have some of us speak about it and also to get the entire church involved in stuffing the pencil boxes and Ziploc bags before the event.  It was pretty awesome how our lead pastor managed that, and we knocked it out in 15 minutes.  Each student received good-quality scissors, sharpeners, glue sticks, pencils, crayons, and a few markers and colored pencils.    

Manny watched the kids by himself that day, and thankfully Chris' wife dropped him off to watch the college football game, so I'm sure that helped with occupying the older ones.  Isaac didn't really nap or eat that well, but everyone survived.  Thank you, Manny!

Our church has so many missions outreaches in the fall (October is Missions Focus month) that I cannot keep up with all of them.  Some people are involved in every single one of them.  I am really glad to have been a part of making one of those events happen beyond just funding it.  I don't know if I could do it again, but ultimately if God is calling you to something, He'll give you the means to do it.  

Pencil box assembly during our weeknight worship celebration time.

Naomi helping pass out supplies.

Pre-painting the bookshelf drawers at the school the Monday night before the event.

Some of the volunteers on the day of the event.

Young adults playing with the kids.  Some of them had driven all night from L.A., went hiking in the morning, stopped by to help us, gone up to San Francisco to help City Impact, then another city to continue the outreach.  Crazy!

Selecting books to take home.  The selection was quite impressive.

Playing some Minute-to-Win-It games.

Students picking up supplies before decorating and personalizing their shelves.

let's play tennis:

Finally done with the community project--thank God it went really well despite any time, energy, or skills I lacked.  We had about 65 families (200 people plus about 40 volunteers).  I'll post about it.  Now, I just have some follow-up tasks, like write-ups and a debriefing, but back to my regularly scheduled program...

Before I had Naomi, I thought children would either show interest in something early on, or would just develop an interest in whatever you put them in and stick with it.  Our kids haven't really found their niche yet, it seems, but we've plenty of time.  For now we're taking sports and dance classes more for recreation than competition, so they've no official league experience yet.  I am not one to force a sport on them at such a young age, but I also have never let them quit right when they wanted--they always had to finish the class doing their best.  Swim classes have been just for fun and safety, even though we are not too far from where future Olympic swimmers and triathlete children train.  

Gymnastics was Naomi's first sport, and she did well, but then they promoted her to the next group, and she just couldn't reach the bars or do the flips.  She also just wanted to have fun on the apparatus, which was not the goal of the class.  She had beautiful lines in ballet, and the teacher wanted me to put her in a ballet school, but she did not like the girly leotards and tights.  After Lucas was born, we tried soccer for Naomi.  She did okay when it counted, but she constantly fell and really had trouble with the tight shin guards.  Soccer was Manny's sport for many years; he was an MVP in his league.  However, the soccer mom path didn't happen for me.  Basketball is one of my favorite sports, so we tried that.  The basketball coaches made it tough to stay, though.  Some were switching between harshness and apathy (with preschoolers and kindergarteners), so while that was good for team learning, it just was not fun for me and Lucas to watch.  Hip-hop was her best class, and she had two recitals.  Lucas really wanted in on it as well.  Street dance is my interest, but I still wanted to go back to sports.  My best sports in school were volleyball and running (and that's not saying much), but those aren't feasible for kids their age, at least not here.  

So, after asking the kids what they might be interested in and thinking it through (an active sport that didn't require a ton of strength), tennis was the winner.  Tennis will always remind me of my paternal grandfather, who played it until he was in his 80s.  My racket was given to me by him.  It is particularly popular with Asians here in America, as we aren't all necessarily built for other sports.  My kids fit the bill, I guess.  Speaking of which, the courts are always surrounded by Chinese, whom I can understand.  This means I have to hear the moms who are waiting for their kids to be the next big tennis star.  "Why are they always picking up balls and playing games instead of training the kids?"  I assume they want their four-year-olds to be molded into the next big tennis star.  It is so different from the white moms.  "Oh, look, the balls marked with a dot must mean they get a special prize!"  (The training balls are all marked like that.)  I don't put them in classes to produce a Michael Chang or Jeremy Lin, even though I'd of course be proud of their achievements and their being a light in the sports world if that happened.  However, sports prodigies my kids are not, but the discipline and group/team learning is great.  I'm amazed at how well Lucas is following instructions (as long as he doesn't try to stay up for Manny the night before).  It's hard work for me to prep, and since the kids' classes total two and a half hours, Isaac has to miss or delay his nap unless he crashes (almost never).  We only have two more classes, then we'll take a break for the winter weather.  

Naomi (left) takes her first swing. 

Lucas proudly walking onto the courts.

Obstacle courses for footwork.

Neon-loving Naomi.

isaac, six months old:

ETA from doctor's visit:  He is just shy of 16 lbs (10th percentile).  He was charted at only 30th percentile height/length, but his leg was bent when she took the measurement, so I think it would be a little higher.

I take these in the morning, so he can be a little tired and puffy-eyed.

He can sit up unsupported now, though he does fall over gracefully after a while.

Lucas, ever the proud big brother, asks me to take photos of them together.

Crazy hair day for the brothers.  Isaac about to have some yams.

Baby food!

He takes a couple of ounces from a bottle now, occasionally.

We are halfway through Isaac's first year already!  A couple of weeks past the halfway point, actually.  We've just been even more busy than usual with this church/community project, so I haven't had a chance to update.  Isaac's first tooth has broken through.  He's also able to sit up unsupported (for a little while).  Crawling does not seem to be on the horizon yet.  He babbles with the n, d, and g sounds, but usually only mouths m and/or b.  Sometimes when he cries, "mama" will slip out, but it doesn't seem intentional.

He seems to be in line the CDC milestones, so I just pasted them here:

• Knows familiar faces and begins to know if someone is a stranger
• Likes to play with others, especially parents
• Responds to other people’s emotions and often seems happy
• Likes to look at self in a mirror

• Responds to sounds by making sounds
• Strings vowels together when babbling (“ah,” “eh,” “oh”) and likes taking turns with parent while making sounds
• Responds to own name
• Makes sounds to show joy and displeasure
• Begins to say consonant sounds (jabbering with “m,” “b”)

• Looks around at things nearby
• Brings things to mouth
• Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
• Begins to pass things from one hand to the other

• Rolls over in both directions (front to back, back to front)
• Begins to sit without support
• When standing, supports weight on legs and might bounce
• Rocks back and forth, sometimes crawling backward before moving forward

He is eating solids now.  I said I wasn't going to do homemade baby food again, but I couldn't resist.  He's had pureed yams and butternut squash.  I'm planning pears and apples next.  He's also had scraped avocado and bananas and a soft cracker.  I gave him a tiny piece of soft carrot from my chicken soup, smashed, and he seemed to like that as well.  So far I haven't seen any reactions, so we'll keep going.  He is also taking the bottle once in a while--once in a long while--but at least I have that option now.  He is not a fan of rice cereal or baby oatmeal anymore, but I still make him eat one or the other every day.

You know how no matter how much water and gel I put in Lucas's hair, it stays stiff and bizarre?  Isaac has a thing with his nails.  I cut and file them every other day almost, and he puts up quite a fight.  He still manages to pull on his ears or nose until they bleed.  Usually this happens when he's in a long car ride or a long wait.  He really dislikes his car seat, but hopefully he'll be like Lucas and be fine once we can turn him around.

He is still not sleeping through the night, but with his low weight, I'm fine still feeding him.  At times he goes right into the crib and conks out, while other times he cannot settle down no matter what I do.  He actually cries himself to sleep most of the time and has since birth, and you would think that would mean he's trained by now, but nope.  He is and he isn't.

He likes jumping in the jumpreoo and hearing music or chimes.  He likes to chew on his fingers and occasionally sucks on his thumb, although he often totally misses and presses his thumb into the side of his face or his chin and just mouths nothing.  He still loves diaper changes and hates baths.  That is so unlike the other two.  It's fun now to see how they're all alike or different.  

This will be my last time through this stage, and it's bittersweet.  I'm not exactly a baby person, but if I had to pick a favorite month of a baby's life, six months would be it.  They are just happy and smiley and recognize you and sound hilarious (to me) when they babble.  Fun times.  But I still can't wait till we can get him out of diapers for good!

PS No stats because I put off the six-month appointment until after this community project was done.