Choose you this day

Last Sunday, I leaned over Rowan to tell Chris something during church. As he started to speak, Rowan looked up at the monoliths on both sides and said "shhhhh!" We smiled at his cute response and then went back to our apparently important conversation. Again, Rowan looked up at us like "can't you take a hint?" and gave another, sharper "shhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Rowan isn't the perfect model of reverence, but I was proud of him for remembering and reminding us that we needed to conduct our business at another time. Both boys have been showing a lot of growth lately with all things spiritual. There were days at church where, if I had not had a strong personal commitment, I would have found other occupations for our Sundays. We aren't completely cured of wiggles during Sacrament meeting, etc, but I appreciate that the gospel is starting to have more meaning for the boys. The theme this year for Primary is "Choose the Right." In Primary, we learned "Choose the Right" from the hymn book (I teach music in Primary), and memorized an abbreviated version of the scripture Joshua 24:15. Both Davin and Rowan recited the scripture for the bishop today as part of a Primary challenge and they did a great job (the bishop, who also has a significant hearing loss, called today to say how proud he was of Rowan)! Even more importantly, I've noticed both boys trying harder to "choose the right" and be more conscious about the choices that they make. Davin is a good big brother and often will give up something for Rowan to help him, even if it isn't fair. Rowan doesn't let us forget to have our scripture time before going to bed (though perhaps because it prolongs the bedtime routine...). By no means are we perfect and we still have a long way to go, but it is kind of lovely that our biggest fight these days is over who gets to say the prayer (often we have more than one and I'm sure that we need it).

Lately we have been working on learning the story about Joseph and his coat of many colors in preparation for seeing Aunt Amy perform one of the leading female roles in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. We had a great time making our own coats, learning about the story, and watching some of the musical on Youtube. We are so excited to go to the show!

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Rowan Isaac Rees

The title of this blog also happens to be the name of our new baby. Rowan Isaac. Rowan is a Celtic name that means "little red one", and Isaac is a Hebrew name that means laughter. His initials (RIR) also spell the Portuguese verb "to laugh". So hopefully he will be a fun kid. We think he is already. He arrived today, November 28, 2007 at 2:15 pm (or thereabouts - I'll have to check the exact time). Both he and Katie are doing fine and resting a bit. He weighs 9 lbs, 2 oz., and as you can see from the picture, he has beautiful blond hair. He is a good little boy so far, and we're excited to have him in our family. Davin is with our good friends, the Smiths, this afternoon, but we think he understands a bit and is excited to meet his new little brother later this afternoon. We would like to thank you all for your love and your prayers, and hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to and see many of you soon so you can meet our little guy. If you want to see m...

Labor Day = No Labor

The fun part of moving is that we don't have to go far to find new adventures. For Labor Day we decided to head to the coast to explore. We started our day in Santa Cruz where we stopped for lunch but we didn't stay long. Our next stop was the Swanton Berry Farm where we picked strawberries. In September. In sweatshirts. My southern friends were shocked! The next stop was Harley Goat Farm in Pescadero. We loved watching the goats and browsing through the goat cheese store. Rowan was brave and even tried a little! After the goat farm, we wandered around the Pescadero village and explored the markets. The boys were excited to find a gumball machine but I was more interested in the dahlia market and the fresh artichoke garlic herb bread in Arcangeli's Market (we got our loaf hot from the oven and oh. my. heavens!). We ba...

Something to say

We were there in the kitchen, Rowan and I, when out of nowhere came this sound: “ma ma ba ma.” I stopped for a moment and repeated the sound to Rowan. He looked back at me and did it again: “ma ma ma ba.” This funny laugh bubbled out of me, the kind of laugh when you witness a miracle, something that someone told you was possible but you weren’t quite sure it was, but there it was in front of you, that perfect little miracle. I made the sound to Rowan again and he repeated it again. Picking him up, I spun him around, kissing him repeatedly. It was like a scene from a movie. I’m sure there were violins crescendo-ing somewhere and the audience was getting teary. “Be patient!” they told me, “it could be six months before he makes any kind of sound.” I was all prepared to be patient and I still am. There is a lot left to do. Even after this afternoon’s happy moment, I told myself that it could have been an accident or coincidence, but when he made the noises for Chris later this evening, I...

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