[A is for... Albuquerque] Reading the Bible

Elijah: "Jesus... Obey your parents... Mama, I reading about OBEYING."

Turns the page... "Jesus... Obey your parents."

--
Posted By David and Jamie to A is for... Albuquerque at 4/18/2012 11:54:00 AM

So what's monkey has been up to?

So what's Monkey been up to lately?

He's still the constant companion of Elijah.  He spends his days riding around in Elijah's "little carrier" (his shirt), lately as a back carrier.  Often he is diaperee and swaddled with his friend Giraffe. He enjoys riding around in the trunk of Elijah's tricycle, always ready to roll.

It's a good life for an adored monkey.

Evangeline at 6 months

Evangeline Elizabeth

weight:15.05 lbs (30 percentile)

height:26.25 in (66 percentile)

Eva's bright personality continues.  She is curious and alert.  She is active, always flapping her arms, or grabbing with her hands and feet.  She loves to stand on our laps and bounce, far more happy to be upright than lying down.

Eva thinks Elijah is hilarious.  She loves watching him and lights up when he comes over to her.  She also continues to be Mama's girl, though David has been able to hold her for longer and longer periods.

Sleep has changed this month, with Eva waking up more and more at night. Sigh. Perhaps she is hungry and going through a growth spurt... We have been working on her sleep, and she now can be laid down in her crib, swaddled but awake, and fall asleep unassisted for nap and bedtime.  I can't tell you how freeing this feeling is!  Elijah didn't manage this feat until he was 2 years old!!  Now if we can just reduce the night wakings... :o)

She started solid foods this month (pictures coming soon!) Evangeline loves to eat.  She has yet to find a food she doesn't like!  Her favorite is bananas in a little mesh bag that she gums.  When she is finished with it, the fruit has been sucked out of the bag and she's looking for more!

This little lady wants to crawl so badly! She flips over and rolls, and can tuck her knees underneath her, desperately pulling with her arms, but as yet unable to make herself go where she wants to. This child will be on the move soon!

We love Evangeline's friendly personality (from the safety of Mama's arms, of course), and sense she's as big an extrovert as her big brother... On our recent trip to Boston (yes, we have a lot of blogging to do!) she loved being in a bustling city with people to smile at every where she looked!

As a praise, on her recent pediatric visit, the doctor was unable to hear her heart murmur so it looks hopeful that the VSD (tiny hole) is closing on it's own.  We have a follow-up cardiologist appointment when she turns 1.

Why I may not be reading my Bible on Kindle for a while...

I am a fan of the e-book.  I love the convenience of our new Kindle, and how I can access the same library of books on my phone, too.  The portability is great, especially as my time to read is more in snatches on-the-go.  Eva falls asleep in my lap, and I can grab my phone and read, even in the dark with its backlight.  We have a study Bible on our Kindle, and it is so easy to look at notes, cross-references, or flip to different sections with a stroke of the finger. I believe this has made me read the Bible more, as I always have it conveniently with me.
Recently it occurred to me that Elijah had no idea what I was doing, if I was reading my Bible, texting or on Facebook.  All he could see was me looking at the screen on my phone or e-reader.  Not that I want my actions to be showy, "Look, Mommy's reading her BIBLE!" but I do believe in the importance of him simply observing me.  I want him to know that his mother finds strength in her Bible reading, and as much as I can tell him that, I believe it is far more meaningful when he simply sees me in action.

One of my favorite passages is Deuteronomy 6 which is such a natural picture of teaching children to love and live for God.

7   You shall teach them (God's words) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8   You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9   You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God explained that the ways children will learn of his commands are by hearing them from their parents, and by seeing them everywhere... written, posted in significant places in the house, lived out by their parents... This has been motivation for me, at least for now, to read my Bible as a book with paper pages, and not an e-book.  I want Elijah to see me with the Bible, know it's the Bible, and see it laying around, moved from place to place, obviously in use.

This morning something occurred that encouraged me to continue in this.  Elijah picked up my Bible and pretended to read it, turning page after page, "reading aloud" to me.  What is interesting is that what he read was exactly what I had read to him in the "big" Bible, not his children's picture Bible.  In explaining obedience to him, I had read to him Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."  I described how this was his job from God, and that we needed to teach him how to obey his parents and so obey God.  This morning, this was the (paraphrased) verse he "read" to me.

Elijah: "Jesus says, Obey your parents... Mama, I reading about OBEYING."

Turns the page... "Jesus... Obey your parents."

He's never done this when he's played with the Kindle. :o)

Maybe when he's a little older and can read for himself, he might notice when playing with the Kindle, that the Bible keeps popping up as most recent activity, and this won't be an issue... but for now, with my toddler... I'm not so sure.

I still love our e-reader, but this is something for me to consider... Am I making my example clear for my children to see...

Any thoughts or ideas about this?

The things he says...

Elijah: "I don't want to take a bath. I want to be Dirty Boy!"

Elijah, coming up to me sadly shaking his head, "Mama, I can't fly."

Most mornings...
Jamie: Good morning, Elijah! How did you sleep?
Elijah: I sleep 10-4-6.
Jamie: Oh... is that good?

Rocket Launch

This post is a bit overdue, but never late than never I guess... Last month we posted a few pictures of Eli and I making his first rocket (I say first because there will definitely be more in the future), but just realized that I never posted on the actual launch.

After building the rocket our first attempt ended up being a scrubbed launch (yes, Eli knows the term scrubbed launch). When we went down to the launch site it was pretty cold and poor Eli was freezing and it wasn't that enjoyable. Also, I was using a battery and don't think I had a high enough voltage to drive enough current to ignite the rocket motor. To top it all off somebody decided to park in our projected landing zone and walk his dog so we decided to call it a day and try the following.

This is a video we took on our way to the launch site the first time.

The following day proved to be perfect with a slight breeze and no clouds in the sky. We had the launch site to ourselves and this time I came prepared with a 12V battery that could source more than enough current (we drove the car). Eli helped mount the rocket to our homemade launch platform which met the National Association of Rocketry standards.

 We carefully wrapped the streamer into the nose cone and placed the motor and igniter into the rocket.

Hear Eli is pointing to the rocket as it was coming down. 

It came down only a few dozen feet from where we had launched it and Eli ran over to get it. Unfortunately, he broke into tears when he saw the nose cone separated from the body of the rocket, even though he knew  this is what was going to happen.

(although it appears we're close the launch rod ensures the vehicle shoots vertically)

El Malpais National Monument

After a lot of travelling we wanted to get out of Albuquerque and into nature. Eli and I decided to show Jamie and baby sister the natural arch in El Malpais National Monument we had visited on a boys road trip last year. Eva did surprisingly well on the trip napping for most of the drive out. Once we got to the arch Eli enjoyed the hike up to arch and pretended he was the engine while Jamie and I were a coal car and caboose.

After hiking around the natural arch we drove down the road to the Lava Falls trail head. The hike took us on a mile loop on cracked, black, lava flow. The only way to know where the trail was to follow cairn piles that were spaced every 20 feet. Some of the cracks were 15 feet deep, created as the lava cooled. 

Portions of the rock cooled with little ridges and is referred to as Ropy Pahoehoe, a Hawaiian term for relatively smooth lava. The ropy texture is common on pahoehoe flows. 

It was far to sharp and dangerous for Eli to hike so he chilled on my back and made an excellent lookout for the next pile of rocks. 

The below picture is called the natural amphitheater and was created as gases were released by cooling lava and forced up newer flows over the older ones. 

In addition to the natural amphitheater there were many sink holes that one could explore. 

After leaving the Lave Flows portion of El Malpais we drove up onto an overview that provided a view of the entire valley. In addition to the beautiful view we enjoyed some natural formations that looked like they could have been carved by humans. What do you think they look like? 

We thought they looked like a face looking out across the valley and a camel sitting down. 

CDR Season

After two months of travel I have finally made my last big trip (at least for the near future)! In the past two months I've traveled to schools across the US who are participating in our University Nanosat Competition. The purpose of the visit was a full day review referred to as a Critical Design Review or CDR. This has meant a five day trip every other week for the past two months. Each review was a 12 hour marathon where we covered the entire spacecraft design including mission purpose, instruments, and all the subsystems.  In order to make it through the travel we had some great help from Jamie's and my mom who each came down for one of the trips. The final trip we were all able to head up to Boston together (a separate blog post coming later).

Some fun stats concerning the travel... I visited 10 schools in eight states (Maryland, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Montana, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts). As most of our flights were not direct I flew through a million (slight exaggeration) airports including Albuquerque, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, Bozeman, Butte, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Baltimore, Reagan, and Atlanta. At many of these airports I would snap a picture of the plane I was going to be on and send it to Jamie so she could show it to Eli and he could see where daddy was. Below is a collage of some of the pictures (needless to say my frequent flyer mileage is doing well).

Although it was extremely hard to be away from the family so much the reviews on the whole were excellent and well worth the investment. I received a number of emails from Professors expressing their support for the program and the impact it was having on their students. But despite the success I'm glad to be having my feet on the ground here in ABQ.

Can't get enough of these smiles!

I just can't get enough of these smiles!

Happy girl!

Sitting in the high chair, gumming on her fruit through the mesh feeder, Eva's a happy girl!