Sunday Afternoon

Mom and Cullen spending some time together on Sunday afternoon...



You may remember how we used to measure Cullen's growth by comparing him to his teddy bear. Now we compare him to mommy instead:





January has been a relatively calm month.

Five Months Under the Belt

Cullen celebrated his 5th month birthday today! He celebrating by rolling around the living room, his new pastime. He is also in the early stages of teething. I guess that's my fault -- I told him he couldn't have a birthday cake until he has teeth, and that seemed to really motivate him.

Oh, and here's a recent picture of Cullen and Smarty at the 5 month birthday party:

Old Friends

I am currently in search of two friends from my years in San Diego: Dan Desmarais and Jim Kraeger. If you bump into them at Starbucks, or in a church service, will you please let me know? Also, if either of you read this, will you please confirm that I have your last names spelled correctly? It's not "Desmarias" or "Krager" is it? No, I didn't think so...

Keeping track of friends is important to me. I've moved a lot, and value the friendships I've made in different cities. Below is a post I wrote for my other blog, but thought I'd duplicate here. It's about Jim. The very best New Year's Eve ever was spent in my apartment living room, praying with Jim Kraeger.


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This is a Bible I used for a handful of years in the early 1990s. These were particularly formative years in my Christian life and in my growth as a Bible student and teacher.

I call this the "Jim Kraeger Annotated Bible" because a friend at that time - we'll keep him anonymous but call him "Jim" - would often say things that I wanted to remember, and so I scribbled them in the back of the Bible.

Like this:

click to enlarge

Below are the four primary Kraeger quotes. I can't guarantee they weren't lifted from various Puritans (he was a diligent reader), though I generally attribute them to Jim:

1. "Without love, our duties are as burdensome to God as they are to us."

2. "Christ drank a cup of wrath without mercy that we may drink a cup of mercy without wrath."

3. "The prayer that moves God is the prayer that moves me." (NOTE: I have found this to be experientially true, though I bet some would disagree; would love to discuss sometime.)

4. "There are three categories of Christians: those who give Jesus place; those who give Him prominence; and those who give him preeminence."

I am currently trying to track down Jim Kraeger. If you know where he is, send him this way!

More fun with the bumbo seat

Cullen is much more interested in the nifty tray table than the toy on top...

Christmas in St. Louis... East and West meet in the middle

My brother got engaged this fall -- he and his fiancee Hilary are going to get married this August in northern California. Cullen hopes mom and dad are brave enough to attempt a cross-country flight with a one-year-old, so that he can attend the wedding. He promises to be very good.
He enjoyed seeing his Aunt Hilary and Uncle Jeff once more... ...and says thanks again for all the wonderful gifts... he made out like a bandit! For next Christmas he has already requested his very own remote control helicopter....he promises to be very careful with it :-)Bath time for Cullen....
Cullen with Grand-pop.....
and mom.
Happy New Year!

Overheard in the Dismal Swamp

Yesterday, Cheryl and I took a walk along the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail. This is located near the Great Dismal Swamp, which is not to be confused with the Great Swamp -- where we used to live in New Jersey.

This is a stock photo of the Great Dismal Swamp's Canal Trail:


No vehicles are permitted, although we snuck the baby stroller on. Dogs are apparently allowed, though, and they had a great time. It also led to this brief conversation:

Man in group: What kind of dogs are those?
Man walking two dogs with wife and baby (proudly): Whippets.
Man in group: What? Wiglets?
Man walking two dogs with wife and baby: No, whippets!

I've had whippets confused with greyhounds before, as in "Are those greyhounds?" or "Hey, did you rescue those?" But never with "wiglets."

So, just for review, then. This is a whippet:


And this is a wiglet: