musings

A Day In The Life…

March 22, 2011, by No comments yet

My son is BEYOND awesome.

Every day he makes me smile.

Most days, he makes me laugh out loud.

When my dad gave a speech at my wedding, he said “I feel like I won the lottery.”

I think I will probably say the same thing every chance I get when it comes to both of my babies.

But Josiah recently entered a new stage…

I suppose we could call it the “I just realized that I can learn more about the world by asking questions” phase.

Or maybe IJRTICLMATWBAQ for short.

Here is the conversation we had over breakfast Saturday:

J: What’s that?!!?

Me: I don’t know. What is it?

J: It’s peanut butter!

Me: That’s right!

J: What kind?

Me: What kind of peanut butter?

J: Yeah! What kind?!?

Me: I don’t know. You tell me.

J: I don’t know either!

Me: It’s creamy peanut butter.

J: What kind?

Me: Um… it’s just creamy.

J: What kind?

Me: CREAMY! Creamy peanut butter. Made from peanuts.

J: Peanut butter is made from peanuts!

Me: Yep.

J: What kind….

If Stephanie or look totally exhausted next time you see us, it’s because we have 100 conversations like that every day.

It’s amazing to watch Josiah grow up right before our eyes and to see those little wheels in his head spinning as he pieces together his understanding of the universe.

But man…. the kid has a LOT of questions.

Nine Posts From 2010

January 20, 2011, by No comments yet

It was a different life when I had time to spend hours reading through our previous year’s blog posts, reminisce, pick out my favorites, and write a new year’s “Here’s What We Did In 2010” post.

But just in case you don’t come around here very often, here are a few of my favorite posts from 2010.

In no particular order:

Kharis Laughing

Josiah Turned Two

The Orange Chair : Kharis Version

Kharis’ First Video

Josiah Video

Kharis’ Baby Shower

Josiah Toddling Around Southpoint Mall

A Couple Of Josiah’s First Steps

My Thoughts Going In To 2010

2010: A Reflection

January 1, 2011, by 4 comments

(warning: what began as a short reflection on 2010 became a full-fledged brain dump – continue at your own risk)

2010 was a tough year for the Rieslands.

Not tough as in somebody got really sick or someone lost their job — I realize a lot of folks had those kinds of years, and I’m definitely grateful that we didn’t have anything tragic to overcome.

And I don’t mean tough as in bad either. It really was a wonderful year. Maybe our best yet.

I just mean tough. Hard. Stressful. Exhausting.

The first half of the year found Steph trying to take care of a very active one-year-old while finishing a very difficult pregnancy. And the latter half of the year has been six months of doing just a little better than treading water — trying not to be overcome by the responsibilities of raising a 2-year-old and an infant and still living a somewhat normal life.

And also trying to do all that on one income.

And also trying to do all that without just surviving — doing our best to enjoy this season.

Let me pause at this point and clarify: I’m not complaining. Not at all.

In fact: this year has gone at least as good as we hoped it would. Seriously…

Read more →

Thoughts As My Son Turns TWO!

November 5, 2010, by 2 comments

Seriously?

Did I just write that?

TWO YEARS OLD?!?!?!?

Is my son really turning TWO years old today!?!?

Someone please explain to me exactly when my son went from this little 7 1/2 pound cuddler:

caption

To this curious, running, jumping, talking, ball-throwing, counting, movie-watching, hide-n-seek playing, water painting, sports worshiping little boy who recognizes U2 and John Mayer songs when they come on the radio, bargains with me about how many more bites he has to eat before he can watch a “DD”, and runs at least one naked lap around the house right after we get him out of the bath tub every night:

Hit it!
Play baseball!
Play basketball!
Throw ball daddy!
Daddy, hit ball!
Daddy, sit!
K.S. (Kharis)
Hiding!
P’h! P’h! (Pops his lips like a fish. This indicates he wants goldfish.)
Aaaaaple juice!!! (ALL juice is ‘apple juice’, and he never just says ‘apple juice’, he announces it: “Aaaaaple juice!”)
Mean shark! (A reference to Finding Nemo)
Mean doggy! (A reference to Sandlot)
Vwoooody! (A reference to Toy Story)
D-D! (“DVD”)
Grab hat. At the plate. Swing bat! Hit ball! Pow! Running now. Past first. Past second. Past third. Wow! (A paraphrase of the first SIX pages of his favorite book. He can ‘read’ them to you.)

I set out to write a “Here’s To You On Your Birthday” post for Josiah, but I was immediately overwhelmed.

I just couldn’t possibly imagine having a more amazing son, and I think it would take at least a book for me to explain all the details of why.

So, instead, I think I’ll just try to capture a little bit of his essence at this age, and maybe this time next year, I’ll look back at this and laugh.

For starters, here’s 2 minutes of video from last week that captures him at this age pretty well. This was a couple of days before Halloween. Josiah was ‘helping’ me rake the leaves:

Here are a few of his favorite things to say as he turns the corner to becoming an official 2-year-old:

Ooh too! (U2, his favorite band)

Read more →

Belief

June 9, 2010, by No comments yet

Earlier this week, I told you guys about a hip-hop song you might be interested in.

Well, for those of you who told me that nobody likes hip-hop, have no fear: today is rock.

Steph will tell you that probably my favorite musician is John Mayer.

Say what you want about his private life or his 20-million-dollar watch collection (no, seriously), but the man has more musical talent in one fingernail than I probably ever will in my life.

Not only does the guy have some serious musical talent, he also has some incredible song-writing skills. The lyrics to some of his songs are profound and poetic, and he manages to verbalize thoughts that I have but don’t know what to do with.

Jon Acuff over at “Stuff Christians Like” even wrote a “John Mayer Quiz“, where he challenges you to guess whether lines are from the Bible or from a Mayer song. He also gives 7 Reasons Why Christians Wish John Mayer Were a Christian, which is pretty funny to me.

Anyways, for my birthday last year, Steph bought me the Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles concert DVD.

It’s a fun mix of acoustic, blues, and pop and I love it.

In the past couple of weeks, it’s been a staple in our house because Josiah (our little drummer) has discovered a love for music and asks me to watch that thing every stinking day.

He points at the drummer and flails his arms and goes “booommma! boooommma!”

(Have I ever mentioned that I love my kid?)

Anyways, I don’t know where this long intro came from, but here is my favorite jam from the DVD. It’s the song Belief, which I have blogged about before.

Enjoy: