Taste and see!

About two weeks ago, in the midst of a study on one of my favorite children's authors (Patricia Polacco), I read a book to my third graders called, Thank You, Mr. Falker.  The book opens like this:

“The grandpa held the jar of honey so that all the family could see, then dipped a ladle into it and drizzled honey on the cover of a small book.  The little girl had just turned five.  ‘Stand up, little one,’ he cooed.  ‘I did this for your mother, your uncles, your older brother, and now you!’  Then he handed the book to her.  ‘Taste!’  She dipped her finger into the honey and put it into her mouth.  ‘What is that taste?’ the grandma asked.  The little girl answered, ‘Sweet!’  Then all of the family said in a single voice, ‘Yes, and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book!’  The little girl knew that the promise to read was at last hers.  Soon she was going to learn to read.”

After this girl (who is Patricia herself) completes this lovely ceremony with her family at the age of five, she goes on to struggle with reading throughout all of elementary school, until, as you can probably predict by the title, she meets Mr. Falker.  He teaches her in a way that no one else ever has, and at long last, in fifth grade, printed words finally start to make sense to Patricia.  The book ends like this, with Patricia gleefully celebrating alone in her house:

“She spooned honey on the cover and tasted the sweetness, and said to herself, ‘The honey is sweet, and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee who made the honey, it has to be chased through the pages of a book!’  Then she held the book, honey and all, close to her chest.  She could feel tears roll down her cheeks, but they weren’t tears of sadness; she was happy, so very happy.”

Beautiful story.  Even if my story ended there, it would be pretty great.  But that's not the end.

A few days after reading this book, I joined a small handful of ladies for coffee one evening to have some community time where we could sit and chat about our faith.  In the circle of six young women, I only had a preexisting relationship with one person.  The other four were essentially strangers to me, but I was certainly pleased to meet them.  One new friend and I (let's call her "Mary"), surprisingly, have several friends in common.  (As it turns out, she grew up in Putnam County where I now attend church.)  As she shared more about herself, she described that she is not a part of a church or other community of faith, that she doesn't know too much about the Bible, that she spent several years tagging along with a friend to a church youth group as a teenager, and that she really is just interested in having a place where she can talk about faith with other people, as there are not many people in her current life who are open to this topic of conversation.  I was already excited about all of the new relationships that were forming in our coffee circle and the future conversations I could imagine us all having, but I felt the Lord had put "Mary" and I in this group together for a particular reason.  It was a bit exhilarating!

As conversation drew to an end, Lisa, the friend who had invited us all together was chatting with "Mary" about the particular translation of the Bible that Lisa had brought with her.  It had been lying on the table, encircled by our various caffeinated beverages, throughout the evening.  Consequently, a drop of honey had landed on the cover.  I had taken notice of this earlier in the evening and thought to myself, "Oh, that's funny," thinking back to Patricia Polacco's lovely honey ceremony, but didn't make much of it.  Until this moment: Lisa was describing what an easy-to-read translation it was and how it is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with scripture.  Lisa picked up the Bible and, being the mom-of-toddlers that she is, wiped the honey straight onto her shirt.  My internal dialogue started going NUTS!  "The honey ceremony!  This is crazy!  Is this really happening right now?"  Lisa passed her Bible to "Mary" to keep until the next time we meet, and then the most significant thought of the evening, which wasn't just a thought, but more a word from the Lord, entered my mind: "She needs to taste it.  She needs to TASTE IT!!!" 

Psalm 34: 8 "O taste and see that the LORD is good!"

This moment, I am convinced, was meant just for me and completely ordained.  Regardless of how well I explain it (and I'm sure I haven't actually done all that well), I am sure it will never be as astonishing to anyone else as it was to me in that moment.   I believe the Lord just wanted to reveal Himself in a private and personal way to me, to remind me that the relationship I have with Him is not merely a theoretical and abstract one, but rather one that is close and intimate.  He knows my innermost thoughts.  He knew that drop of honey would BLOW MY MIND. 

Upon returning to school, I also read a related Polacco book to my class called The Bee Tree.  This one ends like this:

“Grampa took Mary Ellen inside away from the crowd.  “Now, child, I am going to show you what my father showed me, and his father before,” he said quietly. He spooned the honey onto the cover of one of her books. “Taste,” he said, almost in a whisper. . . .
“There is such sweetness inside of that book too!” he said thoughtfully. “Such things...adventure, knowledge and wisdom. But these things do not come easily. You have to pursue them. Just like we ran after the bees to find their tree, so you must also chase these things through the pages of a book!”

This time, the idea was even more precious to me than it had been at first.  I was now reminded that we must pursue the Lord through the pages of His Word.   But if we do, adventure, knowledge, wisdom, and so much more, await us!

O TASTE AND SEE.

Sleepy Time

If you've noticed that I haven't written a blog post in a while, let me remind you that I have two children now.  Two children who are beautiful, wonderful, and an absolute handful!

I recognize that what I'm about to write may not be very interesting in the slightest to anyone who may stumble across it.  This is more of a "write it down for my own memory" post.  That being said, we are currently working on sleep-training the soon-to-be one-year-old in the Stone home. 

We have a two-bedroom home.  There are four of us.  This causes a slight conundrum in the sleeping arrangement department.  Now, before you give me the "when I was growing up" speech, I'm fully aware that much greater numbers of people have lived in far smaller spaces.  My own father is one of eight siblings, and they always had multiple children per room in their house.  (On that note, I honestly never thought about how that worked with new babies, until I had my own children.)  Back to our current circumstance.  The complication is this: Owen has yet to sleep completely through the night.  He has made drastic improvements (he wakes up once a night at the same time every night now), but still not straight through the night.  He either must share a room with us, or share a room with Aubrey (who has just turned three).  If he shares a room with us, we have to tip-toe around in the dark when we need to do anything after he has gone to bed.  If he shares a room with Aubrey, we run the risk every night of him waking her when he has his middle of the night wake-up.  And then we would have two children awake in the middle of the night that we would have to deal with.  In either sleeping arrangement, I am also limited in the sleep-training department.  By that, I mean that if he were in a room alone, there are steps I would take or techniques I would implement to help teach him how to self-soothe when he wakes up in the night, which would eventually teach him not to wake up at all.  The primary "technique," if you can even call it that, is that I would let him cry it out (within reason).  I am confident that this would work pretty well for him because this is how we got him to break the habit of waking up TWICE a night, as the first wake-up time was before we had gone to bed.  He can't cry it out in Aubrey's room, for obvious reasons.  He can't cry it out in our room because not only do I have very limited patience for a crying baby who is only three feet away from me, he also KNOWS that I'm three feet away from him and is totally offended by me not responding to his crying, which makes him cry even more.

Enter: my hair-brained idea that may actually work.  Rob and I are spending several nights (hopefully not more than "several") sleeping on an air mattress in the living room!  While it is not the world's most comfortable arrangement, I can already say that it is helping to accomplish the sleep-training that so desperately needed to take place.  Last night was our first night, as the air mattress was already inflated from the "pajama party" we hosted for the kids' birthdays.  Owen had his usual wake-up, but I did not respond.  His crying escalated in a matter of minutes to the "I'm REALLY ticked off" screeching cry, but just as soon as it escalated, it dwindled down to nothing.  He put himself back to sleep!  I was so proud of him!  Typically, when he wakes up, he will not go back to sleep until I nurse him.  I've tried comforting him in other ways, and he is completely calm, until I lay him back down in his bed.  And the attempts I have made to soothe him without picking him up (pat his back, speak softly, etc.) just make him more mad that I'm NOT picking him up.  So the fact that he was able to get his frustrations out by crying but then put himself back to sleep was a BIG accomplishment!

Tonight will be our second night.  I plan for us to continue until either his wake-ups are very brief and I think that he could self-soothe even with us in the room, or until he isn't waking up at all for several nights in a row.  I would take either option. 

After the sleeping-through-the-night goal has been accomplished, next on the list is Project "Ditch the Pacifier."  He only uses it when sleeping, but it is definitely his comfort item.  Aubrey was the same way, and we took hers, cold-turkey, on her first birthday, so if we follow suit with Owen, he's got about two weeks left.  Aubrey was sleeping through the night much sooner, though, so I'm not sure if that will delay the pacifier process at all.  I'm only willing to tackle one of these issues at a time! 

When he is sleeping through the night and can fall asleep without a pacifier, the next step in the process will be for him to officially move into Aubrey's room (yay!)  He has slept in there quite a few times before, but I have always rushed in to get him and take him out when he has awoken in the night.  Life will be much easier when I don't have to worry about doing that.

Healthy Documentaries

**I tried to post this a few night ago, but our stupid internet went down.  So I finally have five minutes to myself to sit down and post it now.  **

For those of you who have been following the recent food journey of the Stone household, here is a summary of all of the "healthy" documentaries that I have watched recently.  My list continues to grow, but I may be nearing the end of the films that are readily available to me!  (The first two are a must-watch, if you're interested in this topic.)

• Forks Over Knives: I really enjoyed this one.  This made me rethink the nutritional benefit of a lot of the food items that I have always eaten as a part of my regular diet.  It also made me think about some of the things I have been conditioned to believe are the healthiest options, when in fact they may not be.
• Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead: This is a powerful film about a man who has a severe autoimmune disease.  He had been taking a truckload of medications for a number of years, and the combination of the steroids and a lifetime of poor eating habits had left him severely overweight.  His disease continued to worsen, no matter the medications, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and see if there was a chance that he could heal himself through eating the healthiest foods possible.  He kick-started his dietary changes and weight loss journey with a 60-day (yes, SIXTY day) juicing fast!  The film follows him throughout that 60-day period and beyond.  His weight-loss was incredibly impressive, but even greater than that was the way in which he was able to decrease his medications to almost nothing.  Through the course of the film, he also assisted another man on a nearly identical journey.  This man started at well over 400lbs and managed to lose over 200lbs!  Throughout the film, there was a great deal of information about each person's health statistics and the ways in which those numbers were transformed, not just in terms of weight.  This is the film that convinced Rob and myself to give juicing a serious chance, and we have definitely seen some major improvements in our own weights and health.
• Vegucated: This is the one film that I have watched that I would NOT recommend.  I actually didn't finish it myself.  It's not that there is anything "wrong" with the film, but it just takes a different angle on a vegetarian lifestyle that really doesn't help motivate me to be healthier.  It just tells you what a terrible human being you are for slaughtering animals.  It goes so far as to point out unhealthy, packaged food that qualifies as vegetarian!  How is this beneficial???
• Hungry for Change: This was a very inspirational film because it was almost strictly interview-format with health professionals who not only provide a lot of beneficial information, but who also have been on their own transformational food journeys.  They look at our common eating habits from many different angles that most of us have not ever thought of.
• Food Matters: This one takes a serious look at how our food helps or harms our health.
• Food Fight: This one discussed the problems in today's "food system" and promoted local, organic, sustainable agriculture.
• Ingredients: I like that this film focuses on where your food comes from and encourages us to eat locally.
• Killer at Large: This is an overview of the many factors contributing to the American obesity epidemic.  In 2006, over 112,00 Americans died due to factors related to obesity.  This is a serious problem.

Vegan Recipes

Continuing with the food theme as of late, I wanted to share some of the recipes we've tried recently, and also to comment that we have been very satisfied with our mostly vegan eating habits.  We haven't felt that we are missing out on anything, and we have made some very delicious discoveries. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, we were given The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook recently.  It is (obviously) geared toward diabetics and those desiring to prevent spikes in blood sugar, but it has some really great healthy recipes for anyone.  The one that we've tried so far, and have fallen in love with, is the vegan lasagna.  I won't post the recipe in its entirety, as I'm sure that violates copyright, but I'll summarize the basic idea of it.  I'm sure you can fill in the gaps, if you're really interested.  It basically consists of layers of zucchini and eggplant, sliced thinly, in place of actual lasagna noodles.  In between the bottom two layers is a verde sauce (raw spinach and a little red pepper, blended with water until smooth).  In between the next several layers is a home-made tomato sauce.  The key to the flavor of this sauce, in my opinion, is the balsamic vinegar that is included.  It's really delicious.  Under the top layer is a macadamia nut "mozzarella"  (we actually used vegan "cheese" instead, as it was much cheaper than the nuts).  On the very top is a cashew "Parmesan" (basically cashews, salt, and garlic, blitzed in a blender).  On their own, none of the ingredients are all that impressive, but they combine in a magical sort of way to make something that is truly delicious.  Both Rob and I were seriously impressed.

The other recipe that we tested out just tonight is the vegan/"raw" Pad Thai from The Present Moment Cafe's cookbook.  (Please support local business and buy it yourself if you're really interested in trying the recipe.  You can order it from their website or buy it on location... and it's a really well-designed book, so it's totally worth it!)  We have recently discovered and fallen in love with this place, so we bought their cookbook, and our first recipe attempt was not disappointing.  My new favorite (bizarre) food item is kelp noodles, which are called for in this recipe.  They are nearly carb-free, and they have a really pleasing texture, pretty similar to thin rice noodles.  The recipe is a little involved, but not difficult.  Because it's "raw" (Google exactly what that means, if you're interested), the main steps in the process are basically to throw things in the blender together.  I've learned that vegan cooking, especially "raw" foods, involves a LOT of cashews because apparently you can make just about ANYTHING out of them!  Both the Pad Thai sauce, as well as the "sour cream," were made from a cashew base.  You could probably use peanuts for the sauce, if you're really a fan of that flavor, but the cashews made it quite delicious.

Speaking of carb-free noodles, I also recently tried Shirataki Noodles (made from tofu).  While the texture of these aren't bad, they smell disgusting!  You have to rinse them to get rid of some of the smell, but it seems to linger even still.  If you are looking for a carb-free option, I would definitely recommend the kelp noodles over these.  I was able to find kelp noodles at our local health food store, Diane's, alongside all of the other seaweed/Asian-food items. P.S. "seaweed snacks" (like paper thin crackers) are quite delicious, as well!  Who would have thought?!

Our new dehydrator will be here tomorrow so we can begin trying out other "raw" recipes.  I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at the "sunshine burger" (made with sunflower seeds and, you guessed it, cashews).  I'll let everyone know how those turn out.  For now, I'm going to make some carrot juice.  Good night!

Part-Time Vegan

 Much of my life lately has revolved around a cutting board, so I figured it was time to write a food post.  Here's the summary of our family's recent eating habit overhaul.

There's not a real clear start date to all of this, so I'll just give a little background info that seems pertinent at the moment.  I went back to work after 12 (glorious) weeks of maternity leave in November.  The holidays were relatively normal, as was the start of the new year.  Shortly thereafter, Rob went to have his routine blood work done, and his doctor recommended that he meet with an endocrinologist at Mayo to discuss some things relevant to his diabetes.  After said meeting had occurred, Rob came home with some dietary directives from the doctor, which mostly can be summed up by the following:

1. Eat your biggest meal of the day in the morning.  Eat most of your protein in the morning.  Taper off your meals throughout the day.
2. Get as close to a no-carb lifestyle as you can.

I am always a fan of better health, especially when it involves my husband, so I wanted to do whatever I could to support him in making some major changes to the way he/we eat.  So, naturally, I turned to Pinterest.  I started pinning high-protein breakfast recipes for inspiration.  In so doing, I came across a link to a book called The Big Breakfast Diet: Eat Big Before 9A.M., and Lose Big For Life, by Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D.  I was intrigued by what I read about it, so a few days later, I went out and ordered it at Barnes & Noble.  This book really helped us begin the journey we are currently on.  Because of the meal formulas laid out in the book, we learned how to start shifting when we eat certain foods.  We also began deliberately incorporating a LOT more vegetables into our diet, so as to adhere to these meal formulas. 

After that, I began looking into the MANY food-related documentaries available on Netflix.  The first one I watched was Forks Over Knives, on a quiet Thursday night by myself.  This one was very eye-opening as to how negatively our health can be impacted by the high animal-based diet we often have, and about how quickly you can turn some of that around by switching to a high plant-based diet.  Very informative and interesting.  I would definitely recommend this one.

One night after Rob and I put the children to bed, I came down stairs and put on another documentary.  When Rob came down and asked what we were watching, I chuckled as I told him the title, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, knowing the kind of eyebrow-raise this would get.  Despite his lack of enthusiasm, he watched the whole thing with me.  This one is about a guy with a severe auto-immune disease who, despite the large amount of medication he takes each day, continues to get worse instead of better.  He is also pretty drastically overweight, partly due to poor diet, and partly due to the steroids he is on.  He decides that nothing else has worked, so he will attempt to heal himself through an all-natural, whole-foods, plant-based diet.  To kick-start this drastic change in eating habits, he commits to go on a 60-DAY JUICE FAST!  Every meal, every day, for 60 days, he does nothing but juice fresh vegetables and fruit.  (The film explains in great detail the benefits of juicing.)  Both the weight loss and the health improvements are INCREDIBLE, to say the least.  He meets a guy along the way who has the same disease as him (very rare) who is also very obese.  This guy gets inspired by him and decides to follow suit.  His changes were even more amazing.  By the end of the movie, Rob had decided that we should buy a juicer and try a 10-day fast (as recommended in the film).  This shocked me, but made me very optimistic.  I knew Rob was on-board for some major changes.

I knew that I couldn't do a juice fast at this time because I am breastfeeding and would need more protein and nutrients than juice alone would provide.  But I did agree to the challenge of doing a 10-day vegan diet with no processed carbs.  We got started the very next morning, which was Sunday.  By Tuesday, we had come into possession of a juicer, so we bought a truck-load of produce and juiced away.  We are entering day 13 of this eating plan, and we are both surprised at how little we miss the meat/dairy/carbs that we had been used to eating.  I have been able to find some really great alternatives that I probably would have never tried before.  We have not committed to being "full-time" vegans permanently, but this has provided us with a great opportunity to learn about some healthier options that we can incorporate into our normal routine.

Some other sources of information that I have looked into are the film Hungry for Change (very inspirational, if you're ready for a similar journey), and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook by Mark Hyman, M.D.  This one provides more information about getting rid of the processed carbs in your diet so that you can naturally prevent spikes in your blood sugar (very important for Rob).  It does a great job suggesting ways to replace those carbs with healthier options, and it has some really great recipes, both vegan and not.  I made the vegan lasagna recipe, which was absolutely amazing!  I was very impressed.

If you're looking for some very informative sources to inspire you to eat better, I would recommend all of the above.  One that I would NOT recommend is the film Veducated, unless, of course, you enjoy feeling like a terrible human being because of all the animals you have slaughtered. But if that's the kind of motivation you need, then by all means, go right ahead.

In summary:
1. Eat protein early in the day.
2. Get rid of processed carbs.
3. EAT MORE VEGGIES!!!!

The end.  I welcome questions.

P.S. I've lost 40 pounds since before I had children 2.5 years ago.  I can't credit all of it to this way of eating, but this certainly has helped.

Recent Recipes

After a coworker expressed an interest yesterday for me to write a new blog post, I decided I probably could throw something together.  So this is for you, Christina!

Here are a few Pinterest recipes I've tried lately:

Creamy Avocado Dressing.  I doubled the amount of hot sauce because I was using Texas Pete, which is pretty mild.  I had lime juice on hand, so I used that instead of the lemon juice.  I used Greek yogurt instead of the mayo, which made the dressing really thick, so I also added some milk to thin it down a bit.  It was very yummy!  Not an overwhelming avo flavor, so even if you're typically not a fan, you might like this.  Also, I knew I couldn't use it all up before it went bad, but I wasn't going to throw it out, so I froze the remaining dressing in an ice cube tray so I could thaw a bit at a time.

Mango Salsa.  I didn't add strawberries, but it was really delicious.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza.  First go around was a bit too soft.  Second time, we added a bit more flour and cranked up the heat.  That worked well!  Really quite tasty!  I'd also like to try this recipe that uses yogurt instead of flour, and the process is a bit different.

Collard Green Veggie Wraps.  I had collard greens on hand from my weekly produce bag from The Neighborhood Garden.  Although I'm a southern girl, I'm not so southern as to cook collards in the traditional manner and serve as a "side dish."  Considering this fact, and that we are trying to reduce our carb intake, I went in search of another option and found this recipe.  I didn't do the same fillings as this recipe (although they look really yummy), but I used this post as inspiration to use the blanched greens as a no-carb alternative to tortillas.  For the filling, I copied the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Hummus Veggie Wrap fillings, although I didn't have any asparagus at the time.  (And before you correct me, yes, I'm aware that hummus contains carbs and therefore my wraps were not totally carb-free.  I am a part of a diabetically-aware household.  We know how to count our carbs all too well.)  My wraps turned out well.  The main vein of the greens is still a little too thick and stringy for my taste, even after shaving it down, so I prefer to take it out completely at the thickest part.  This leaves a gap in the middle of the lower side of the leaf, but once you roll it up, you can't even tell.

Zucchini Pizzas.  Okay, this one was really a matter of convenience.  It was an easy meal to throw together on a night when I was on my own with the kids, and I already had all the necessary ingredients.  I didn't have a jumbo zucchini with a really large diameter, so I did it more of a zucchini "boat" style.  Pretty tasty.

Broccoli Salad.  This one holds a special place in my heart.  Both my mom and mother-in-law are famous for making this for family gatherings.  Each of them do theirs slightly differently.  I followed this recipe, and added some shredded cheddar, in my MIL's style.  I like that this one uses honey for the sweetness, rather than granulated sugar.  Oh, and I use Craisins instead of raisins.  I could eat this for days.

Balsamic Mushrooms.  Let me preface this one by saying I am a cheese addict.  My new-found favorite cheese is called Bella Vitano.  It's a hard cheese that has been aged in balsamic vinegar, so the flavor has soaked into the outside.  It is heavenly.  I made these mushrooms and paired them with the cheese.  This is what heaven tastes like.  On their own, the mushrooms would have been much too strong, but they were great paired with the cheese.

Salmon with Pomegranate-Balsamic Glaze.  I love fish and grew up on it, but I'm not the biggest salmon fan, under normal circumstances.  But I was determined to find a way to make it delicious.  This is it!  This was so fantastic!

So that's all for now.  We've also really enjoyed the vegetable stew recipe from The Big Breakfast Diet book, but we puree it and season it like chili.  Really tasty, but that recipe will have to wait for another time.  Good night, all.

Pebble Number Two

Yes, it's a school night and I should be packing lunches and showering and a million other things.  But I finally got the itch to sit down and write about Pebble Number Two.

My due date was Friday, August 10.  On Tuesday, August 7, I went to see the doctor for what I was hoping was the last time.  At that point, I had already had several on-again, off-again days of mild contractions.  (In fact, I really thought on Aubrey's birthday, July 28, that I wasn't going to make it through the day without heading to the hospital.)  At that doctor's appointment, I was informed that I was already dilated 4cm.  My doctor also stripped the membranes, which will often get labor started naturally without an induction.  Because of my gestational diabetes (yes, this was round two), the doctors wanted Owen out by my due date so that he didn't have any extra time to keep on growing bigger and bigger.  I was told to wake up at 4:00AM on Thursday, call L&D, and tell them that I was instructed to come in if there was space for me.  My doctor said that either I would already be in labor by then, or they would plan on getting me started when I got there.   I wasn't in labor, but they told me to come on in anyway.  From this point forward, my experience was incredibly similar to my experience with Aubrey, other than the fact that my water had not yet broken. 

We went in, I got put on antibiotics and IV fluids, and eventually a really slow drip of Pitocin.  The plan was that the doctor (who, by the way, had just returned from the London Olympics) was going to come in around lunch time to break my water.  The nurse wisely convinced me to go ahead and get my epidural before that point because, she said, labor could progress very quickly after that.  (Have I mentioned lately how fantastic the L&D nursing staff is?)  After a few hours of moderate contractions, the anesthesiologist came to put in the epidural.  The worst part of that experience had nothing to do with the needle/injection, but rather the horribly uncomfortable position I had to sit in to have it put in.  I had to lean over, curling my back out as much as possible.  For the average person, this is not a big deal, but keep in mind, I was full-term pregnant with a baby who was in the larger size range.  There was not much leaning and curling room!  I had to hold that position, through a couple rounds of contractions, for what seemed like eternity.  I felt as though my ribs were being crushed the whole time!  But that experience ended, and it was smooth-sailing from then on. 

Just before 4:00, the nurse kept asking me questions about the level of pressure I was feeling.  I replied, telling her that I felt a little, but not a lot.  When she checked me, she kept repeating, "Are you sure you're not feeling anything?!"  Apparently this baby was ready to make his debut! While she was calling the doctor in, she had me start pushing a little, and basically by the time the doctor had his gloves on, we were having a baby!  He was literally out in 5 minutes.  My 9lb baby boy came into this world like it was nothing!

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Immediately, Aubrey became the loving big sister.  She is so sweet with Owen, always hugging and kissing him.  She was also such a trooper while Rob and I were at the hospital.  It helped, I'm sure, that Grandma and Grandpa were here spoiling her a little!  She came to visit while I was in labor, and she happily sat in my bed and ate all my ice chips.  When she came back after he was born, all she wanted to do was hold him.  She has learned how to be gentle with him.  She talks to him and tells him he's so cute.  I pray that she will always love him and take good care of him, even as they grow up.

Owen is an angel baby.  As far as infants go, he is so well-behaved.  He has dimples that will melt your heart, and gurgles and coos that make it impossible not to smile.  I am unbelievably blessed to have such a sweet little boy who I know will grow up to be an amazing young man.