Little Man

Yep, I think he likes peas

This one's for Uncle Matt and Nana:

ASU shorts! (yes, those are the 18 month size shorts you bought, Nana!)

Calvin loves to climb into the coffee table

This is what I saw this afternoon when I went to check on Calvin during his nap:

Motherhood

I think this is worth sharing.

Fall is in the air

It's slowly starting to cool off here, and the anticipation of fall is in the air. Not that we have much of an autumn in Phoenix, but I still think this is my favorite time of year. It's starting to cool off in the mornings now - at least enough that I can take Calvin for a stroll without breaking a sweat, and I know that in other parts of the country the leaves are starting to change beautiful colors. Maybe this year we'll take one of these road trips to experience a little autumn scenery in the desert.

I am trying to do a better job at keeping current pictures on the blog, and I'm reminded every time I realized Calvin has already changed since my last post! He is a bona fide crawler now, finding new fascinations in some unexpected places. This afternoon he was mesmerized by the spring door stop in his room and the vibration it made when he swung at it. His favorite toys right now are tupperware containers and plastic cups, which is fortunate since we have plenty and both are virtually indestructible!

Farmer Calvin:

"Can I help you?"

Daddy and Little Man comparing "guns" in their muscle shirts

My new favorite shirt

Beautiful flowers Todd gave me

Prayer

An excerpt from a study guide by Tim Keller:

KINGDOM-CENTERED PRAYER

Biblically and historically, the one non-negotiable, universal ingredient in times of spiritual renewal is corporate, prevailing, intensive, kingdom-centered prayer. What is that?

It is focused on God’s presence and kingdom. In Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, Jack Miller talks about the difference between “maintenance prayer” and “frontline” prayer meetings. Maintenance prayer meetings are short, mechanical, and totally focused on physical needs inside the church. But frontline prayer has three basic traits:

1) A request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves;
2) a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church; and
3) a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory.

It is quite clear whether these traits are present when listening to a prayer meeting. Most interesting is to study biblical prayers for revival, such as in Acts 4, or Exodus 33, or Nehemiah 1, where these three elements are easy to see. Notice in Acts 4, for example, that the disciples, whose lives had been threatened, did not ask for protection for themselves and their families, but only boldness to keep preaching!

It is bold and specific. The history of revivals shows one or a few or many who take the lead in praying fervently for renewal. Their pattern is Moses (Exodus 33), who pitched a tabernacle outside Israel’s camp where he and others prayed for God’s presence and to see his glory. Such prayer need not (indeed, usually does not) begin as an organized church program. Rather it is a private field of strong exertion and even agony for the leaders. The characteristics of this kind of prayer include:

a) Pacesetters in prayer who spend time in self-examination. Without a strong understanding of grace, this can be morbid and depressing. But in the context of the gospel, it is purifying and strengthening. They “take off their ornaments” (Ex. 33:1-6). They examine their hearts for idols and set them aside.

b) They then begin to make the big request — a sight of the glory of God. That includes asking:

1) for a personal experience of the glory and presence of God (“that I may know you” [Ex. 33:13]),
2) for the people’s experience of the glory of God (v.15), and
3) that the world might see the glory of God through his people (v.16). Moses asks that God’s presence would be obvious to all: “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

This is a prayer that the world would be awed and amazed by a show of God’s power and radiance in the church; that it would truly become the new humanity that is a sign of the future kingdom.

It is prevailing and corporate. By this we mean simply that prayer should be constant, not sporadic and brief. Why? Are we to think that God wants to see us grovel? Why do we not simply put in our request in and wait? But sporadic, brief prayer shows a lack of dependence, a self-sufficiency; and thus we have not built an altar that God can honor with his fire. We must pray without ceasing, pray long, pray hard. We will find that the very process is bringing about that which we are asking for — to have our hard hearts melted, to tear down barriers, to have the glory of God break through.

Little Man Update

Calvin has entered a whole new world of culinary delights! He ate his first solid food (rice cereal) two weeks ago and has also tried oat cereal. Tomorrow we are going to delve into the wonderful world of vegetables!

The first bite - YUM YUM YUM!

I've got this down now!

Calvin is working on tooth #6 already. He will chew on anything available, but his very favorite items are tags and straps and buckles. We realized this when he started being able to get around by rolling - and would always roll straight to his swing, where he figured out that he could pull the strap through the bottom of the swing and chew on the buckle. Other top picks

include the strap on his changing pad, the strap on my leather change purse, the tag on his Boppy pillow, and the camera strap, as seen here.

It seems like every week he is reaching a new milestone. First he was able to push himself into a sitting position from his stomach, then he started pushing onto his hands and knees, and then he was crawling before we knew it! A week ago, on his 7-month birthday, we found him

standing up in his crib, on top of his crib bumper, hanging onto the side railing! As I type this Calvin is pulling himself up into his bouncy seat going after the most desirable object in the room - the strap on the seat, of course!

A little late, but nonetheless

More pictures from California

Little Man in the big city! Calvin wasn't sure what to think of the cable car ride. The first leg of our trip we were all a little claustrophobic since we sat in the enclosed part of the car where it was hot and stuffy and jammed full of people, but the return trip we got to sit outside in the fresh air where the views were breathtaking!

Even though it was a clear day, the Golden Gate Bridge was still shrouded in fog.

More wedding photos

Something to chew on

Surprisingly I'm not talking about the latest object to finds its way into Calvin's mouth! I read this quote yesterday in an article by Norman Podhoretz in yesterday's Wall Street Journal and thought it was worth sharing. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree:

"The great issue between the two political communities is how they feel about the nature of American society. With all exceptions duly noted, I think it fair to say that what liberals mainly see when they look at this country is injustice and oppression of every kind - economic, social and political. By sharp contrast, conservatives see a nation shaped by a complex of traditions, principles and institutions that has afforded more freedom and, even factoring in periodic economic downturns, more prosperity to more of its citizens than in any society in human history. It follows that what liberals believe needs to be changed or discarded - and apologized for to other nations - is precisely what conservatives are dedicated to preserving, reinvigorating and proudly defending against attack."

San Francisco and Monterey

Calvin's first plane ride was on a Boeing 737 from Phoenix to San Jose. They let us take some pictures in the cockpit but the airlines (at least the one we flew) no longer hand out wings to kids on their first flight. So our very sweet friends contacted the airline and had them send Calvin a pair of wings in the mail!

Our first day in San Francisco was cold and foggy. Here is Calvin trying out his cool-weather clothes for the first time ever.

The next day we went to see some redwood trees at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

After the redwoods we drove to Santa Cruz for lunch and then on to Monterey. This is at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey with Aunt Beth, Aunt Blenda, and Uncle Kem.

New Beginnings

My brother and his wife had their first baby, Matthew Curtis, on August 20! Here he is with his overjoyed parents, Matt and Heather!

The same week that baby Matt was born, we were in CA for my cousin Jared's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding for a fantastic couple! Here is Jared with his bride Jesse.

With Grandpa and Grandma Wenger