Baby Radez Has a Name!

I thought I had lost the pics of our ultrasound where we found out the sex of the baby, but I found them...Yay! I think we have officially decided on a first name for him... Tate! We haven't decided on his middle name, but are very excited to be able to call him by his name now. I'm 24 weeks along, and feeling great! Tate is quite a little kicker most of the time, so we'll see if he's going to be an active baby once he gets here too! Just from looking at his ultrasound pics, I think that Tate is going to look a lot like Logan... and that means like his Daddy too!

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July with old friends in Greenville this past weekend! We got to hang out at the Johnston's house for a while, and then go to a cookout with lots of Crossroads friends. It was such a sweet time to catch up with people we love! After dark, a couple of the guys actually set off firecrackers in the backyard! I really thought Logan would be terrified of them, but he did really well. He watched with Daddy for a little while, and then hung out with Mommy on the deck. I asked him if he liked them or if he was scared, and he said, "I'm scared." He never cried though.

I've been trying lately to do more activities with just Logan instead of over scheduling activities with other people. We love getting together with others, but I've been realizing recently how important it is for us to love being at home too... even if that just means inviting others to our house instead of going somewhere else. One fun thing we did this week was to make a surprise for Daddy! We made him some banana bread...his favorite! Logan did a great job helping with this more involved recipe. He stayed involved through the entire process, and it was even a good lesson in sharing when I had to take over to complete a step. Logan is really into doing things "by myself". He started saying he wanted to do things "self" several months ago which was exciting, but it's becoming a finer line between being excited about his independence and choosing which things he really shouldn't do by himself yet.

Some of our good friends from church welcomed their second baby, Sophie, into the world last night! Logan had his first sleepover (without a friend's parents here) with his friend Natalie. They had a blast playing at the pool and at home together! They both (Logan more than Natalie) wanted whatever the other was playing with though. That's where the pics of them each holding their Elmos, the same sippy cups, and snacks come in to play. By the end of Natalie's stay though, they were learning how to play with the same toys together! Logan has recently had a difficult time sharing his toys with others (especially at home) so I am thankful for this opportunity to focus on that, and it always helps when Radez gets to see what kinds of issues Logan is having that usually occur without him around. We also had a playgroup at our house this week which forced him to share with lots of friends at once.

When we dropped Natalie off at her house, we got to sneak a peak at Sophie! I explained to Logan that she was the baby that was in Ms. Alana's tummy and she came out last night, and we can see her now. He looked at me and very emphatically said, "Baby brother come out Mommy's tummy now and see me!" I thought it was the sweetest thing ever!

We are surprised at lots of the things Logan is coming up with to say now. A few days ago, I was rocking him for a couple of minutes before nap time as usual, which sometimes if he's exhausted he may fall asleep during, and with his face turned away from me he started yelling, "No get me, no get me!" over and over. I turned him towards me to find his eyes were still open, so I asked him what he was talking about. He said there was a tiger in his room! His imagination is certainly growing! He constantly finds different uses for things other than the ones they were intended for. It is really fun to see him becoming so creative! Another cute thing Logan says now is, "I'll be 2 on my birthday!" He holds up two fingers at the same time for everyone to see!

One last thing... Logan passed out from a breath holding spell for the first time since last September a couple of weeks ago. We were at a birthday party at the park, and he fell down but didn't really get hurt, just scared. It the first time Radez has experienced this firsthand, and it definitely made a lasting impression on him. As awful as these things are, I am thankful that the Lord uses them to teach us so much. I became very fearful of what could happen if I didn't have time to get to Logan while caring for an infant (head injuries, etc). I was once again reminded that God's perfect love drives out fear. He loves Logan more than I ever could (which is hard to imagine), and his eyes are on him even when mine are not. It is easy to try to control all things with Logan, but please pray that I would continue to trust God because his plan for Logan's life is better than mine could ever be.