Snake joins Mommy and Me...

OH MY GOSH, I AM NOT KIDDING!  Today, five of us and our little babies were playing on blankets spread out in the grass in the courtyard, having a lovely time chatting and admiring each other's little bundles of joy.  All of the sudden, Hannah (who is also seven months pregnant) shrieks pretty calmly and  jumps up with her 18 month old because there was a HUGE snake about a foot behind her and Lyric, who had her three week old next to her.  You have never seen five babies snatched off the ground any faster than our babies were as we simultaneously levitated!  That snake was at least four feet long and at least an inch and a half thick and just picking its head off the ground and slithering right past our blankets and us!  It was not scared at all.  In the meantime, five mamas were making quite some noise as we watched this intruder into our sweet playgroup time.  We definitely called public safety and Hannah informed them that we would "prefer the snake not to be there"- they actually came, to their credit, though they did not find and kill the snake, as we would have liked.  We don't think it was poisonous, but it was definitely too big to let live.  Just another day at playgroup...

Jodi and Chris' visit

Week before last, my sister Jodi and brother-in-law Chris came to town- it was their first time to Malibu and first time to meet Abby Jane!  We had such a good time getting to play around town and hang out.  I was under the weather over the weekend, so they went to Santa Barbara for the day.  Jake has been there twice for retreats, but I have only been to my old job's satellite office there- I haven't done the cute part of town yet.  But that's on the list of things to do out here...We all went to the beach together one day, then Chris and Jake got in a pre-work surf on another.  On their last day out here, we went down to Venice Beach, which we don't do too often- it's mainly a touristy place where you see all kinds of kooky people.  Which makes for great entertainment!  Abby Jane was a big fan of her aunt and uncle- she even let Chris trim her toenails!  What a good uncle she has...

Abby Jane is getting great head control and is "talking" up a storm these days.  It's going to be so funny to understand what she's trying to so hard to communicate someday.  She looks so earnest while she's talking- you can tell she thinks it's very important!  

Please continue to pray for my friend Katherine.  She's responding more and more, but still has no gag reflex and is running a fever- those are the prayer requests right now!

Pray for Katherine...

I have a friend named Katherine Wolf.  She's from Athens, GA, went to Samford, went to Camp DeSoto with me, is one of my neighbors while her husband finishes law school, and is in our little mama's playgroup.  They have a sweet 6-month-old son.  On Monday at noon, she passed out in her apartment.  After her husband Jay revived her, she could not move or feel her legs.  Upon going to the hospital, they discovered a congenital defect in her brain called an AVM malformation that caused bleeding on her brain.  After a twelve-hour surgery from Monday night to Tuesday morning, they stopped the bleeding.  She was in an induced coma until today, when she started wiggling toes and fingers through the coma.  They brought her out of it this afternoon, but she's still asleep.  We are so thankful that she has been able to respond enough to wiggle things on command, but still do not know the extent of the damage caused by surgical complications.  Praise the Lord for how he has answered prayers throughout all of this so far (Jay being home when she passed out, her surviving surgery, not being paralyzed, family arriving safely, the list goes on).  But please pray as the days and weeks ahead are so critical! They are updating a facebook group called Pray for Katherine Arnold Wolf, and a general website on www.katherinewolf.info... Thanks for your prayers!  God is sovereign, so faithful, and will be glorified in all things...

Betsy and Cade's visit

It's been quite a week in our household!  In the last week, Abby Jane successfully survived her first round of vaccinations, Jake's sister Betsy and our 13 month-old nephew Cade visited for a few days, and Abby Jane slept through the night the last two nights!! So exciting!

We had a great time with Betsy and Cade.  Paul came out and joined us on Saturday before they all flew out to New Zealand Saturday night to spend a few weeks with Paul's family.  Cade is such a delight!  He is the first cousin for Abby Jane to meet, and he did very well with her.  We did a lot of playing outside and went to the beach one day.  Jake and Betsy surfed- the first surfing for our family this year!  We were so sad to see them go, but had a wonderful time while they were here.

Abby Jane slept through the night the last two nights... ironically, those were our first two nights to practice "tough love" and let her try to self-soothe when she first went down... which equates to crying herself to sleep.  But somehow it got us two full nights of sleep- I didn't know what to do with myself being so well-rested!  We won't count on it lasting, but we'll take any nights we can get...

My sister Jodi and brother-in-law Chris come out this Thursday and will stay with us til early next week- we can't wait to have them here!

Getting started...

After much encouragement, we are finally starting our blog!  Abby Jane turns 9 weeks in two days, so at least we're getting this started before she is ready for 1st grade or something...

Life is so sweet with a little one!  Especially with her wonderful nights of only waking up once to eat.  Which means she has happy, well-rested parents!  

Abby Jane is in a precious stage of smiling and talking to us.  We think she's brilliant and very articulate, but we're probably a bit biased.  The smiles are our favorites!  Her eyes are so alert and observant that sometimes we forget that she doesn't understand what we're saying to her.  She looks like she knows exactly what we're talking about and wants to take part in conversation.  We are looking forward to when she can!  Already at 9 weeks, she has been to Mammoth on a ski trip, has spent a few afternoons at the beach, is a great little shopper, and loves to go on walks (though she falls asleep every single time).  Her favorite part of the day is when we go outside and lay a blanket on the grass.  She kicks and smiles and is the happiest that she is all day long.  Her other happy part of the day is when she first wakes up.  When I unswaddle her, she stretches out and smiles and laughs.  And sometimes makes some unladylike noises... which may be related to the smiles...

Jake has gotten caught up on his schoolwork after basically taking off the month of February.  Pepperdine students get out for summer in a couple of weeks, then it's a nice, quiet summer in the office.  We're in the middle of a "visitors" season right now- lots of family are coming to see our little bundle of joy!  Jake's parents came back for a second visit last week, Jake's sister Betsy and little Cade are here this week, my sister Jodi and her husband Chris are next week, then my mama comes the first of May.  So fun!  We love sharing Abby Jane...