Adjusting to Two

A lot of people have been asking what it's like having two babies in the house now.

In a word: Delightful.

In three words: Dinner is chaos.

It's really been wonderful. I think our household has transitioned well. We have a fairly easy baby and Obadiah is starting to get a little consistency in his routine so we are managing. Usually. But every few dinners things get crazy: there is at least one baby crying, not sleeping when he should be, or demanding to be fed. Right when we sit down to eat. So usually the dad (i.e Trey or Kyle) holds the kid (i.e. Zion or Obadiah) off for a few minutes while the mom (i.e. me or Sarah) scarfs down her food. Then the mom takes the son and the dad gets to eat and then clear the table while the mom goes to feed the kid. Yeah, we have the hold-off and hand-off down to an art.

Plus, Zion is old enough to be distracted by toys, so that provides a few minutes of relief. And he's really interested in food these days so he will just stare at us while we eat with longing in his eyes. It's really cute. Until he realized he isn't getting any of that food and he starts screaming. Then the hold-off/hand-off begins.

But it doesn't stress us out. The Foxes have a lot of patience and a good sense of humor with Obi's fussing too. Sometimes he'll be screaming and Kyle will bring Obi up to his ear and say, "What's that? I can't hear you? Can you be a little louder?" Makes me laugh every time. Obi isn't as amused.

And inevitably when I (or Sarah) start a task or chore at the beginning of a nap, the baby will wake up. This typically happens with Z when I am wrist deep in dirty dish water, or pounding raw chicken to be marinated, or cooking three components at once for dinner, or about 10 minutes into a workout. Zion can flip from his back to his stomach now but can't flip back over. So he gets himself belly-up and then just lays there trying to figure out what happened. And Sarah is in the phase where Obi wakes up the second she starts making herself lunch. I remember that phase all too well. Kids have impeccable timing, no?

But we are taking it all in stride. And the adult team outnumbers the baby team in this house so we (adults) win. Most days.

Zion. 5 Months. Video.

Zion is 5 months old!

Z: 5 Months Old

Guess who is five months old (today), has a big drooley smile, and is now sitting up? 

This kid!

After a while he loses interest in sitting up and just tips over. 

Cracks me up every time. 

Taxi Rides with Hamlet

Rhona and Hamlet came over yesterday to hang out. While Rhona was spending quality time with Obadiah, Hamlet spent some time pushing Zion around in his taxi. 

Hamlet would even retrieve Zion's toy every time it fell (i.e. Zion flung it) off the hood of his taxi.

Zion is lucky to have such a sweet friend. 

Sunny Side Up

We put this boy to sleep on his stomach and in the morning we found him like this...

Sunny side up laying sideways in the crib, on top of his blanket.

He was pretty pleased with himself.

ABC: Imagining the Kingdom

The Allen Book Club met again last week. This time we waited for Little Man to go to bed and snuck downstairs for some book club conversation. On the menu for discussion: Imaging the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith, the second book in the Cultural Liturgies series. (We discussed the first book here)

The book is a continuation of the first book (duh) on the topic of cultural liturgies, anthropological pedagogies, and Christian education. It was still very theoretical and not as application oriented as we had hoped. The third book (not yet published) promises to offer practical ways of applying his philosophies within the educational realm.

The book went into more depth and detail about how and why we are desiring beings before we are thinking beings. He proved his point with extensive research about the power and influence of narrative, how we are significantly shaped by our bodily experiences, how our minds and bodies learn on subconscious level sometimes more than on an intellectual level, and how that shapes our character in ways we don't often consider. He references a lot of historical Christian liturgies and disciplines. There's also a heavy influence of psychology (that's my jam!) in this book. It is pretty technical, like the last one, but a great read. It did help to clarify and solidify some of the ideas he proposed in the first volume. I would obviously recommend it but it's certainly not light reading.

We are really looking forward to the last volume. But in the meantime Trey and I are reading another book called Teaching and Christian Practices. It's a collection of essays from professors and Christian educators who put these ideas into practice in their own classrooms. I'll review it once we finish reading it. So far so good.

These books (and the ones we are currently reading on the same topic) are really shaping the way we think about our daily habits and practices. We have started doing a few things differently in hopes to change and reform our desires to be for the Kingdom and instill those same desires into Zion, even though he won't be able to articulate these things for many more years. I'll write up a post about it soon for anyone who might be curious.

P.S. Britt & Faris, I'm gonna start nagging you guys to read these books soon. I really want to pick your brains about it. It's theology + education, what's not to love? Plus you two don't have kids so you must have ample free time to do my various reading assignments, right?