breath of heaven

D and I are not ones to go overboard with holidays.  We were lucky to put out a few tiny pumpkins on our porch for Halloween that stayed outside until Thanksgiving (and then a few days).  We used to decorate our house for Christmas, but probably in large part because we hosted a Christmas wrapping party and our friends generously brought gifts to wrap for a family in need that we adopted. We will one day resume hosting parties.  Maybe when the twoddlers are twinagers. 

We do love holidays, don't get me wrong.  But probably mostly because it's an opportunity to be with family and friends.  I don't know if we're just too lazy or too scroogy to really get into the rest of it.  We'll try to step up our game when the kiddos are at the age of making memories.

As avid music lovers, though, I've tried to embrace the Christmas spirit by playing Christmas music around the house.  I'm a big fan of the Pandora Christian Contemporary Holiday station.  In general it's good, but what really makes it wonderful is that pretty much every time I turn it on, I get to hear someone's version of Breath of Heaven by Chris Eaton and Amy Grant.  Sometimes, it's even Amy Grant herself.  If you've never heard the song, I highly encourage you to. 

The lyrics are at the end of this post. 

As a mother, the words about Mary's journey are even more poignant than when I first fell in love with the song.  As a mother, it is also my song--a powerful expression of the feelings I have had and continue to have about carrying and caring for my own children.  If I pause from the world around me while listening to this song, I can't make it to the end without a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.  But the good kind.  The kind that come from the most powerful of emotions, love.


Breath of Heaven

I have traveled many moonless nights,
Cold and weary with a babe inside,
And I wonder what I've done.
Holy father you have come,
And chosen me now to carry your son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load I bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.

Do you wonder as you watch my face,
If a wiser one should have had my place,
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan.
Help me be strong.
Help me be.
Help me.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.

oonless nights Cold and weary with a babe inside And I wonder what I've done Holy Father, You have come And chosen me now to carry Your Son
I am waiting in a silent prayer I am frightened by the load I bear In a world as cold as stone Must I walk this path alone? Be with me now, be with me now
Breath of Heaven, hold me together Be forever near me, breath of Heaven Breath of Heaven, lighten my darkness Pour over me Your holiness for You are holy Breath of Heaven
Do you wonder as you watch my face If a wiser one should have had my place? But I offer all I am For the mercy of Your plan Help me be strong, help me be, help me
Breath of Heaven, hold me together Be forever near me, breath of Heaven Breath of Heaven, lighten my darkness Pour over me Your holiness for You are holy

Read more: AMY GRANT - BREATH OF HEAVEN LYRICS

Read more: AMY GRANT - BREATH OF HEAVEN LYRICS

Read more: AMY GRANT - BREATH OF HEAVEN LYRICS

la playa

While visiting the sis, we took the twoddlers to the beach. 

Gorgeous, right?  But don't let that picture fool you, they didn't exactly spend the time enjoying the view.  This was more like it:

I think I made the mistake of trying to put Rafa on the ground to walk in the sand.  Once he felt the ground move under his feet, he wanted no more of it.  So, he spent the rest of the time in my arms, just observing.  I think the expanse of the beach and the ocean, the sounds of the waves, all that makes the ocean awesome to us, was overwhelming to him.  Good thing we plan on visiting sis again many more times in the future and he'll have more opportunities to become enchanted with the sand and the sea.

Sylvia, on the other hand...

Sylvia couldn't get enough of it.  She covered herself in sand.  Raked the sand, filled sand forms with sand, tried to eat sand, let the waves run up over her feet.  Our little adventurous girl loved it all.

While I think the beach is beautiful, going to the beach is not one of my favorite pastimes.  As it seems with most things, though, it is incredibly wonderful to experience it with the twoddlers.

primo time!

I have a lot of catching up to do with all our activities around the holidays... For thanksgiving, we went to visit my sister and her family. We always enjoy visiting with family and really hope that the kids have many opportunities to get to know their cousins as they grow up.

playtime pics

love pats

Rafa's take on sweet love pats. He has watched the nanny cradle a baby doll and gently pat it while shushing. Now, every once in awhile he'll hold something to his chest and pat it, whether it's a doll, a book, a block, whatever.

10 and 2!

We apparently don't set a good example of safe driving.  Two hands on the wheel, kids! 

sweetness

look out world!

The twoddlers prefer walking over crawling now.  Which means we can go to the park!  And other fun things.  Our first trip to the park where they got to get around instead of just our pushing them in swings was super fun.  As you would imagine, Sylvia was interested in everything.  Rafa was a little more cautious, but still really enjoyed it.  Sylvia's favorite part was the slide.  She could not wait to do it over and over again.  We had to fight to get her to sit down because she just tried to jump down as soon as she got to the top.  Sylvia mostly went down lying down on the slide without anyone holding on to her.  Giggling the entire way down.  Rafa preferred to sit up, go down slowly, with a hand from an adult guiding him.  He still enjoyed it.  Just in his own way.

i love the zoo

Actually, I used to love the zoo. Now I love, love, LOVE the zoo. Or, I love the zoo, but I love, love, LOVE watching my children enjoy the zoo.

Like most parents, half of our words with our kids are animal sounds. What does the cow say?... MOOOoooOOoooo! Pretty much every book we read has an animal in it. which necessitates making the sound that animal makes as we point to the picture. I guess we think that maybe our kids will learn to speak duck before Spanish or English. So far, Sylvia can speak fish, but that's about it. We'll work on a video of that because it's hilarious. Well, to us, anyway.

Saturday was one of those more rare than a blue moon kind if day that we had absolutely no plans. So, we took the kids to the grocery store in the morning, to the zoo after their morning nap and to the park with my brother's family and Oma and Gong-Gong before dinner, bath, bed. Whew. It was all spectacular, but the zoo was enchanting. I'm certain it's in part because I love going to the zoo. I love all the animals--even the birds and the hoofed animals. And as the zoo is so close to our house and I purchased a membership today, I'm certain my kids will be brainwashed into cherishing that place, too. We might improve our animal impressions, too.

I used to come home with pictures of giraffes and elephants and flamingos and seals and such. Now I apparently only take pictures of my children's intensely curious awe.

we're mobile! part two

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we're mobile! part one

first word

The twinfants are babbling up a storm. They love to experiment with sound. What Sylvia has in quantity, Rafa makes up for in volume. Sylvia has recently started playing with her tongue and I'm assuming she's learning how it shapes her sounds. She has been mimicking basic sounds for a little while, but without much recognition (if any) for their meaning. They understand quite a bit of what we say, though. Rafa mostly just does his own thing.

But, Sylvia now has her first word that means something an she uses it appropriately. Our home is mostly a Spanish speaking home. The nanny and D speak almost exclusively Spanish. I speak about 75-80% with the kids, but mostly English with D even if it's in front of the kids. As the kids babble along, we often pretend they said actual words that sound like their babbles and 'repeat' what it sounded like they said. So, "babah ohhhhf ay" becomes, "Daddy's home, yay!"

What's the first word, already? you ask?... Whenever I pick up the kids, I usually say, "arriba!" One day when I said that, Sylvia babbled something close to "ahb!" So I responded, "up!" And that's all it took. Now every time she want to be picks up and embraced, she crawls, walks, scoots over and proclaims, "UP!" And we happily oblige with arms, smiles, and giggles. I'm a little disappointed it's not in Spanish, despite all our efforts, but I suppose she needs to master rolling her R's first, anyway.

The prisoners are getting restless

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toy joy

Rafa has been playing with this toy since the day we opened it. It didn't take him long to figure out he needed to smash the balls. Sylvia, though, mostly just tried to eat them. Finally, I decided to show her how it works and make her smash the balls. She seemed a little nervous at first, waving her hand up and down over the ball, not quite touching it until she got up the courage to smash it. And then she discovered the joy.

step right on up

The breakfast bar is open. I guess one bowl of oatmeal, applesauce and blackberries wasn't enough. Daddy, please share yours. (This after he already helped me polish off mine.)

are you ready for some football?!

(I uploaded this earlier this week, but forgot to post it.  Rice also won today, hooray!!)

Rice's last game was conveniently (for us) a couple hours earlier, so it fell in between naps. This made for fun for the whole family. Oma and Gong Gong enjoyed extra time with the grands sharing one of their great passions--sports. The twinfants especially enjoyed all the sights and sounds and opportunities to clap along with so many others, since clapping is really fun for them these days. And they had many opportunities because the Owls enjoyed a rare blowout of their opponent. The Owls might need them to skip their nap next week!

happy halloween

Kids, I apologize for when you're old enough to read this that we're lame parents and didn't take the time to pick out adorable Halloween costumes, put you in them and take a picture or 10 before you got annoyed with the accoutrements, freed you from the weight and heat of the gear, then put you in bed. We also missed the opportunity to show you off to all the neighbors and fill you with chocolate.

We'll blame it on your colds and less than peak condition. Although it probably has more to do with our lack of creativity and boringness.

Just so you know, we did get into the festive spirit a little and attended a pumpkin carving party. You're too small to carve, not that you didn't want to. But we opted for stickers and paint instead. That would have been a good idea if you didn't want to eat the paint soaked sponge brush.

Hopefully, your fleece hoodie jumper things that we needed for the cold weather sort of count as costumes. I can always photoshop some black noses and whiskers on if it lessens your embarrassment of your lame parents.





We'll do better next year. Maybe.