The Leaf Harvest

During the past 4 weeks or so, anyone asking Rob what he's been up to lately would inevitably hear an answer containing the word "leaves".

We have been quite stunned to see the blanket of fallen leaves on our new yard this year! It's not that we didn't expect it - we have a big, mostly wooded yard. It's just that we didn't fully know what the "leaf harvest" would look like, or exactly what the timing might be, until it happened.

These photos were taken on November 7th and 8th when maybe about 30% of the leaves had fallen. You can see a thin covering of leaves on the grass and the driveway, and many still waiting in the trees.

Front yard

Driveway, looking towards the street (you can see our little munchkin exploring the leaves, in the middle of the shot)

At the end of the driveway, looking back in towards the house

Of course, the deck was covered as well!

Above is our back yard as seen off the deck (right hand side). The fence in the foreground of the photo is part of a smaller fenced area that our home's previous owners had constructed for their dogs, but the surrounding property in this photo is ours, too. In fact, do you see the little green patch on the far right hand side of the photo? That's our neighbor's yard. The rest you see is ours. (Our neighbor got to his back yard sooner than we did!)

The back yard as seen off the deck (left hand side).

Rob's new lawn tractor with 2-bagger attachment made the job very efficient, for the large open spaces. It was like running a vacuum through the yard. Check out the areas of grass where he had already "vacuumed" a path.

If you look closely in this shot, you can see the path through the back yard, where he drove back & forth carrying full bags of leaves to the wooded area at the back of our property.

And here he is returning to the front yard to collect more leaves!

Check this out... my hard-working husband with a smile on his face! He didn't complain one bit about all the work. It's all part of owning the great new home that God provided for us. (And for those of you thinking that it surely wasn't THAT much work, considering he's riding a tractor...stay tuned til the conclusion of this post and I can fill you in on the parts of this job where Robbie DIDN'T get to drive around on a tractor all day!)

Plenty of lovely, colorful leaves were still in the trees in this photo, on November 7th. The last of the leaves didn't finish falling until the week ending November 21st.

I mentioned that the job wasn't entirely easy...Well, on the weekend I photographed here, Rob started noticing some issues with his new tractor and ended up needing to have it evaluated at the dealership. That was 3 weekends ago, and the dealership still has it. Unfortunately, due to an "administrative error", the dealership kind of messed up, thinking they had returned the tractor to us, when really they hadn't. Then, the dealership kind of messed up again, thinking they had fixed the issue, when really they hadn't. An additional part needed to be ordered and waited upon. So, the latter two weeks of the leaf harvesting was done the old-fashioned way - by raking and blowing the leaves onto a giant tarp, and then dragging it into the woods, and then repeating for the next 8 hours. But even then, Rob did not complain! Hopefully we'll get our tractor back very soon and good as new, and then we'll park it until next year, ha ha. (Unless we get that snow plow attachment...hmmm!)

More Words

Dorothy's been putting two to four words together for several months now. I thought I'd write some of the things I'm hearing her say a lot these days.

(1) For the most part, her diction is very good and the words sound the way they are supposed to. But of course, there are funny exceptions, which I keep trying to remember so that I can write them down:

• "maw-mower" - lawn mower
• "beef-oh-wer" - leaf blower
• "bee-bow" or "bay-bow" - rainbow
• "eth-et" - elephant
• "BAH-yoon" or "BAH-loon" - balloon
• "bip" or "bimp" - blimp (when we drive into Frederick there's a car dealership that has a blimp-shaped balloon high in the air over the dealership, and she will excitedly yell "bimp! bimp! bimp!" when we approach it)
• "tay-woh-woh-woh" - ponytail holder (sometimes she'll add a bunch of extra syllables to this, like "tay-woh-woh-woh-woh-woh")
• "fah-fly" - butterfly

(2) For the longest time she was saying "peas"(please) and "pay" (play). Suddenly in the past week or so she has decided that the words beginning with "pl-" need to have an extra syllable in them. So she's now saying "puh-weeze" (please) and "puh-way!" (play).


(3) Two Mondays ago (Nov. 10th) she was running and smacked her forehead into our kitchen table. She got a good size knot which has thankfully subsided but she still has a "boo boo" there. Whenever she is reminded of her boo-boo (like when I touch it or someone asks about it) she says "hit table". When I ask her how that happened, or what was she doing when that happened, she says "running". (I'm praying the boo-boo will heal before we get holiday pictures taken or else Photoshop will be getting a workout.)


(4) I've been singing "Jesus Loves Me" to Dorothy at naptime and bedtime ever since she was a very little baby. The other day, when she woke up from her nap, I heard her saying, pretty clearly, "Jesus loves me" and "Bible tells me so." I haven't been able to get her to do it since then, but it was exciting!


(5) She likes to say "new one" (new one), "nuh-one" (another one), and "uh-one" (other one). For example, when I am changing her diaper, after I've taken the old one off, she will say "new one dy-per" (diaper)? Or when she's finished reading a book with Daddy, she'll say "nuh-one book" and go get another one for him to read. Or when I give her a bear, but she really wanted the other bear, she'll say "uh-one bear".


(6) She also understands the concept of "two" - she will hold up a spoon and fork and say "two poons" (spoons). Or for her two shoes she will say "two shoes - one, two". Incidentally, she also understands the concept of "too" (and probably thinks of it as the same thing). When I'm putting her to bed, she will frequently ask for both her babies (dolls). After I give her the first one she'll say "baby too?" (can I have the other baby too?)


(7) She has been counting to ten, although not reliably, for a couple months now. She has done it perfectly, without help, a handful of times, but most times she skips 6 and 7 unless I prompt her. Also, she will occasionally start chanting random sections of the alphabet. I have heard her say "A-B-C" and "H-I-J-K and "Q-R-S".


(8) A few of her books are in heavy rotation and she remembers phrases from them. For example, she likes a book called Little Lamb's Playtime (which she calls the "bunny book" because it has a bunny as well as a lamb). It has the phrases "Come and play!" and "Ride on the seesaw" and "Whizz down the slide". She will read this book to herself in the back seat of the car and I will hear her say "Come and pway! Down the slide! Sit see-saw!" Another book is Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street? (which she calls the "Elmo book") featuring Elmo flying a kite that takes him all over the place. She regularly says phrases from this book, such as "up ee-yair" (up in the air) or "past the moon!" (past the moon) - and she's always looking at the right page when she says it. The other day I asked her something about Elmo flying his kite and she said "Sah-see teet!" (Sesame Street)


(9) She's pretty good with identifying colors (although she's not always correct, but she seems to be improving).

"oh-rinch" = orange
"weh-woh" = yellow
"pur-puh" = purple
"boo" = blue
"red" = red
"geen" = green
"peek" or "pink" = pink


(10) This puzzle that my Dad and Joan gave her last Christmas has all the letters of the alphabet and corresponding pictures. This has expanded her vocabulary tremendously because some of the pictures are somewhat unusual vocabulary words. She knows words like:

"igoo" (igloo)
"ay-pay" or "ay-payne" (airplane)
"op-uh-sus-sus" (octopus)
"jap-ee-box" (jack-in-the-box)
"sy-phone" (xylophone)
"vy-lin" or "vy-o-win" (violin)

Fall Fun

We have really been enjoying ourselves this fall. Dorothy's age and her interest in the world around her, the cooler weather, and our new home & yard have made it quite appealing to be outside. (For me, the absence of crickets is helpful too. I don't know where the crickets go when the warm weather ends...do they die? In any case, I don't mind that they don't stay year-round because I have never seen so many crickets in my LIFE as I did this past summer.)

These photos were taken in the first week of November. The pumpkins are the ones we picked out at Jumbo's. (I picked the big one and Dorothy picked the small one.) I had a hard time deciding which photos to post, since I liked so many of them and Dorothy was having so much fun out in the yard.

These next photos were taken around the house, just before Halloween. One of the joys of having 6 girl cousins, all older than she is, is that she has tons of hand-me-down clothes which include themed clothing for every occasion - including Halloween.

In the next two photos, she put on Daddy's cold-weather hat, which was pretty funny.

Sam & Mike's Wedding

On Saturday, November 1st, Rob's cousin Samantha was married to Mike. Dorothy's cousin Grace was the flower girl. The reception was really lovely and well-planned. It looked like they had as many guests as we had at our wedding (maybe even more), so it was nice and BIG!

The last time we were in New York was Easter (March 2008) and folks couldn't believe how much Dorothy had grown since then. Here are some photos from the reception. She was slightly overwhelmed by the noise and the number of people at the huge reception, so it was difficult to get her to smile.

Dorothy with Grace, who will be 5 years old in January

Dorothy with cousins Katie (who will be 5 in April) and Grace

Momentarily sharing the dance floor with her ADORABLE cousin Ethan, who is just 3 months younger than she is.

If anyone was going to coax a smile from her, it was likely to be Gracie (with help from Grandma O'Brien)

The happy couple as they are introduced - Mr. and Mrs. Michael Maslanik!

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Dorothy dressed in the same fairy costume that she wore last year because it still fit her. Let's take a look back at how she looked in her costume last year, shall we?

October 2007, in her crib - Even fairies gotta nap.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I can hardly remember when she looked like this. Last Halloween she was 9 1/2 months old. She was cruising (walking around while holding onto things) and learning how to imitate hand gestures like clapping, waving, and putting her arms in the air over her head. Last Halloween we went to our church's annual Harvest Party so that we could dress her up and allow everyone to see her - and of course, so Mommy and Daddy could score a bunch of candy. (There are always incomprehensible amounts of candy at this party).

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Fast-forward to this year. We were in New York for Halloween this year with Rob's family, since his cousin Sam was getting married on November 1st. So, we went trick-or treating with Rob's brother Ray, sister-in-law Lori, and Dorothy's little cousins Jake and Katie. This was so that we could dress her up and allow everyone to see her - and of course, so Mommy and Daddy could score a bunch of candy. Some things haven't changed, I suppose.

We added a few layers to the costume this time - turtleneck and tights. It was upstate New York, after all. But actually it was surprisingly mild, which was SUCH a blessing!

Dorothy's first "trick-or-treat" transaction.

Pretty soon she was ready to walk instead of being carried.

She's can't choose between the Tootsie Roll and the Starburst. Girlie, I feel your pain.

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We had such a fun time and we will treasure this memory of Dorothy's being able to go trick-or-treating with her cousins in New York. We really enjoyed meeting Ray and Lori's neighbors and savoring the gorgeous weather as we walked around the neighborhood. Dorothy actually did very well with saying "trick-or-treat", considering she'd never heard the phrase before that day...but we couldn't get her to say it when she was at someone's door, only when we were in between houses. However, she did say "thank you" and "night night" at the end of nearly every transaction, which charmed everyone.

Unimaginable Sorrow and an Unchanging God

Yesterday was a sad day. I attended the funeral of a 5-week-old baby girl who was the third daughter of some friends at church.

It’s not the first time I’ve known of the death of a child. Whether it’s expected, such as the baby born with a birth defect or a child ravaged by terminal brain cancer, or unexpected, as in the case of an auto accident or another sudden cause, the death of a child must be the most devastating life experience anyone can have. (This particular death was of the unexpected kind.)

Our pastor, Josh, reminded us at the funeral that death was not part of God’s original design. Death entered the world through sin – mankind’s rebellion against God. We try not to think about death too much, don’t we? When we do think about the death of an adult, we often comfort ourselves with the thought that he or she lived a full life. But Josh made the observation that when a child dies, we see a glimpse of death the way God sees it – that is, as unnatural.

But, as our pastor continued, God made a way for us to know him when he sent Jesus to come into the world, live a perfect life of obedience to the Father, and die on the cross for our sins. He did this in order that he would conquer death. As a result, those of us who receive him by faith, and little children who are not yet capable of doing so, are only passed over by the shadow of death, but then get to live eternal life with God.

I was freshly assured of this yesterday: God is real. He is not a fairy tale that we comfort ourselves with. You would have no doubt of it, had you been able to see the parents of this precious little girl yesterday. He was with them. It is supernatural to be able to endure this kind of loss with such an unwavering faith. They were indeed grieving, but they were also comforted by the hope that their daughter was with Jesus, and that because of their own faith in Jesus, that they would be reunited with her one day. On this sad day they were not bitter towards God, but instead wanted us to sing songs of worship to the loving God who creates all things and all people and who graciously offered his Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. We sang a song called “Blessed Be Your Name," written by Matt Redman, which was a song that Rob and I had sung at our wedding. It contains the verse

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful,
Where your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be your name.

followed by

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering.
Though there’s pain in the offering,
Blessed be your name.

When we chose this song to sing at our wedding, our reason was that we didn’t want to simply be praising God’s name in times of joy and prosperity, but we wanted to have that faith, that vision, that understanding of God’s character that would enable us to still worship him in the future, when we would encounter inevitable times of suffering. God never changes, and he is deserving of our praise simply because of who he is. That is what these parents were doing yesterday. As they tearfully wished for more days with their little girl, they were still able to say,

You give and take away,
You give and take away.
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be your name.

The other hymn that they chose to sing at their daughter’s funeral was “It Is Well With My Soul”. This hymn was written by Horatio Spafford upon the loss of his four daughters in a shipwreck. It contains the verse:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Oh Lord, haste the day when our faith shall be sight. My heart and prayers are with this young couple who never expected such a loss, but who have already spent years in a relationship with the real and living God who is compassionate and rich in mercy toward them, and who are still praising him for his goodness.

My Lil' Pumpkin, and a Few Others

Last Thursday, October 30, I took Dorothy to Jumbo's Farm in nearby Middletown. I knew it would be my last chance of the season to get some good outdoor pictures of her surrounded by pumpkins.

We had a really great time despite the fact that it was a very cold, windy day. (Mercifully it was sunny!) Dorothy enjoyed seeing and touching the pumpkins, sitting on top of a huge old tractor, and seeing goats, calves, sheep, and some pink fuzzy pigs that were just like the ones in her books.