There Ain't Been No News

Unlike Bethany's wonderful friend Colby, who just announced her ENGAGEMENT on her blog (!!!!!!), Richie and Bethany have nothing new to report.

But this is good. In a year of family deaths, broken bones, and major surgeries, no news is just about the sweetest thing we can imagine.

And we realized the other day: You know your life is good and God is spoiling you if your biggest complaint in your life is that your baby doesn't sleep enough.

(Did we tell you that we found out why? Latest reason: Luke is pushing through THREE MOLARS AT THE SAME TIME. Yes, all those capital letters are intentional. This is crazy. After he was awake one night from 10:30PM til 4AM, Bethany decided to look in his mouth and see if there were any new teeth to blame. And indeed there were. Three more molars that they hadn't even noticed yet. That makes 12 teeth before 12 months old. We need to make Luke a badge that says "I have four molars!" This is a claim to fame.)

It is a shame that Luke is so clingy to familiar faces these days, and so skeptical of anyone new. (Bethany's dear friend Sonya kindly describes it as "Looking deep into your soul to see if you're worthy of a smile" or something to that effect. We less optimistically describe it as "unfriendly" or "annoying" or "grumpy.") It's a shame because once he warms up to you, he is so stinkin' hilarious, you can't help but be in near-constant laughter at his antics.

Like...

1. When Kristen and Alexander came over, Luke played peekaboo in his highchair. His head fell down into his chest, and we kept waiting for it to rise dramatically to "THERE he is!" But despite Kristen's and Bethany's repeated "Where's Luke? Where's Luke? Where's Luke?" his head just stayed down, and stayed down, and stayed down... It never did come back up until little sad tears began to eke out.

2. Poppy offered Luke a banana. Luke put on his warrior face and fiercely swatted away Poppy's bananahand like he was offering him poison. We were all rather shocked at the strength of Luke's bananahatred that particular evening, and Poppy looked at Luke and said, "We need to teach this boy some manners!" As he leaned in to tell Luke he needed manners, Luke got a twinkle in his eye and a little smirk and spat in Poppy's face.

3. Bethany was driving west along Russell Boulevard and turned up the country music. A particularly twangy song was on, and she was singing along, getting a bit carried away (it was that really fun song about the auction--"sold to the lady with the [something something something]... she's an 8, she's a 9, she's a 10, I know...." Anybody know it? It will help you picture the scene.) Then she realized she ought to check on Luke. So she looked in the rearview mirror and saw the carseat rocking wildly back and forth. Hard. To the beat. Luke was dancing.

4. Another driving story: Bethany was in the back seat with Luke, going east on Russell Boulevard this time (our life really is that adventurous), and he was getting horribly cranky. Whiny, cry-y, yucky. So she started to sing. The more cheerfully and loudly Bethany sang, the crankier Luke got. So all of a sudden Bethany started to sing very sweetly and quietly, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Immediately when her voice got tiny and she started to sing of the famous tiny spider, Luke's body relaxed, his eyes gazed at her, and his eyelids dropped. He was asleep.

5. Last night Bethany asked Luke if he wanted to eat some chicken. He didn't say "yes." He didn't say "no." He bock-bock-bocked like a chicken.

6. He has learned how to fling yogurt across the room.

And these are just a sampling of many, many things that make us laugh...


Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones! Ignore Luke's serious expression--he wishes you a wonderful Christmas too...

And one final thing for those of you who are still bearing with this very wordy blog entry and who would appreciate Christmas poetry:

Has anyone heard Chris Rice's haunting song, "Welcome to Our World"? Now that we have a baby, we realize more and more the miracle of the incarnation and the depth of the love of God, to take upon Himself human flesh, the humility of a baby; with the goal of dying, to bear the sin of the world. For our sakes. Ah, but then rising again to give us new life....

Anyway, the words of the song give us chills. Be prepared to get chills and tears in your eyes, too, in wonder at the miraculous gift of Jesus:

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking,
How we need to hear from God;
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting--
Welcome, Holy Child; welcome, Holy Child.

Hope that You don’t mind our manger,
How I wish we would have known...
But long-awaited Holy Stranger,
Make Yourself at home; please make Yourself at home.

Bring Your peace into our violence,
Bid our hungry souls be filled--
Word, now breaking heaven’s silence,
Welcome to our world, welcome to our world.

Fragile fingers soon to heal us,
Tender brow, prepared for thorn,
Tiny heart whose blood will save us,
Unto us is born, unto us is born.

So wrap our injured flesh around You,
Breathe our air and walk our sod,
Rob our sin and make us holy,
Perfect Son of God,
Perfect Son of God,
Welcome to our world.

If THIS astounding event of history isn't worthy of families getting together, feasting, laughing, rejoicing, lighting candles, decorating their homes, giving gifts of celebration... don't know what is.

Merry, merry Christmas.