A year wrapped up

I knew it’d be a while since I blogged…I just didn’t realize it had been THIS long. Yikes.  The past ½ year has felt like a whirlwind in many ways.  I supposed it hasn’t been anything too much out of the ordinary, just living life with three little boys, work, and ministry.

This fall, after much consideration and prayer, Andrew and I decided to start Isaiah in 1^st grade, even though he will be just be turning six in a week.  We are doing the 1^st grade curriculum from My Father’s World. I enjoy it because it is so well laid out and organized, with little to none preparation for me, and isn’t overwhelming to get through a day’s lesson even with Judah distracting us. J  Isaiah is a super little student who loves math, art, science, and books.  He is getting better and better at working through the lessons that don’t come super easily, which is encouraging for me as a teacher.

Ezra is in preschool, and does much of Isaiah’s school with us, although he has his own projects and workbooks when Isaiah is doing the harder stuff.  He loves to cut with scissors, write his letters, and read books with us.  He is a skinny tall bundle of energy, who frequently reminds us of Andrew in his preferences and mannerisms.

Judah…oh Judah.  This little guy will be TWO (already!) in February.  He is such a little ham who loves to make people smile, and wants to be into everything his brothers are doing.  Everything but sit quietly and color, of course! Ha. He is my home-school challenge right now – being able to teach Isaiah, guide Ezra, and keep Judah out of trouble at the same time.  Before we start back in January my hope is to brainstorm some ways to organize our day a little differently so I have some individual and focused time with each child, rather than being distracted by Judah’s antics continually.   

As challenging as trying to monitor all three of them at the same time has been, I am loving the ways I see them learning, growing up, and developing. Some highlights on each child from the past several months:

Isaiah, at 5:  He is sooo good with Judah, and has always been. Isaiah can put on Judah’s hat, coat, boots, and gloves for me to get him ready to go outside.  He constantly has eyes out for situations that may put Judah in danger, and alerts me right away.  He is doing great learning to read, and while he still prefers being read to, I am amazed at how much he can read when he puts his mind to it. 

   Isaiah loves to make cards and pictures for his friends, or write them nice notes.  He is quite a good little chess player, and spent a ton of time this summer and fall playing soccer with conference guests and Bible school students at the place we live/work.  It's so fun to see his skills developing.

  We love to hear Isaiah pray.  The sincerity and depth of his prayers to Jesus astound and humble us.  It is such a blessing to witness his growing relationship and faith in Jesus.

Ezra, at 3 and 4:   He is our little wildcard, the one with the biggest emotions.  He is a go-getter, determined to keep up with Isaiah and older friends. This summer he went for it and developed a ton in his swimming skills. Ezra also mastered a pedal bike in about…10 minutes! this summer, at 3 years old, and loves to charge around on his bike at full speed yelling at the top of his lungs. (Hmm, yep, that pretty much can sum up Ezra!)  He loves to clean – vacuuming, dishes, wiping stuff down, trash, laundry – it doesn’t matter, he’s all in.

Judah, at 1:   This little guy is a bright joy in our family.  His brothers love on him in big ways—constantly.  He has been and continues to be our best sleeper—he went 10 straight months (that’s 300 days, people!) without waking up in the night. I couldn’t believe it.  He loves to make people smile and laugh, and though he can be shy with a few people, he generally is happy to meet new friends and make eye contact with almost anyone around him. 

    I am thankful for his easy-going nature, which has made many situations much less stressful because he is content to watch and wait.  Granted, he has recently started revving up for the terrible-two phase, but that’s to be expected…he is a toddler, after all!

    He doesn’t say more than a handful of words, but communicate very clearly with signs and expressions.  He loves to dance and listen to music.  And my goodness, does he give amazing squeeze-y hugs and sweet baby kisses!

Together, we learn and grow.  Together, they teach me of how desperately I need Jesus to parent them with love, grace, and wisdom. 

For 2017, it’s been one of the hardest years for me personally in a long time.  In the midst of struggles and difficult situations, God has met me and supplied all that I've needed.  I have learned a lot this year, both about myself and about the incredible faithfulness and wondrous, steadfast love God has for me.  I feel so richly blessed, and I am excited to see and be a part of all that God does in the coming year--in our family, myself, our community, and ministry.

I guess that will be it for this year - maybe January will be a fresh start to get back on track with blogging more regularly.  I can always hope.... :) . 

Here are some pictures of our year - 

At the strawberry fields

31st birthday date

Our start of school picture

a beautiful fall sky 

three peas in a pod

Isaiah doing jokes at the Bible school students' talent show

a fun summer visit from my parents

Chocolate Zucchini birthday cake for A & L 

an icy fall day

fun in the snow together

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Dusing Family, September 2017

Judah is ONE!

Honestly, I haven't felt much like writing the past couple months.  Sometimes life's circumstances just don't leave much room for [creative] writing, at least in my experience.

Still, something pretty noteworthy happened, and truly, Judah's 1st birthday deserves some recognition! So here it goes....

February 26th, 2017 rolled around, and it was so hard to believe Judah had been with us an entire year.  This year has flown by, but each day, literally, each day, there is a moment where I am struck by the enormity of blessing that Judah is--to me, our family, and our community--and I praise God for entrusting him to us!

We had a little party, and he was a bit unsure of everything -- the presents, the cake, the singing --but we enjoyed being able to celebrate his first year with us!

For as much as Judah loves music, he really wasn't sure about everyone singing to him!

What is this?!

There was not much smashing that happened with his smash cake!

He got some help with his presents! :)

"Is he always this happy?" That's the been the number one question we've received over the course of Judah's life. While of course Judah has his moments--he is human, after all--generally, yes, he is always that happy!  Judah loves to smile and laugh, and in the past few months, has really turned into a little jokester and goofball.

He loves baths!

"Calm" has also been a word I'd use to define Judah.  From the time he was born, he was been so chill, content to wait, sit around, watch, and be patient.  This has been extra wonderful since with his two older brother often creating chaos, I've really appreciated not having a third one adding to the craziness.

Too cool for school.  

On eating...
Judah likes food (meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruit especially), but has been the first of our child to (gasp!) not really like cheese or noodles.  Actually, he pretty much hates noodles....if I can even get him to try one, he will usually spit it out.  (WHAT?!?!)  He hasn't been the enormous eater Isaiah was, but can still pack it in if he likes it. He's had [the same] 6 teeth since Christmas, and eats everything we do except for the obviously hard and crunchy things not safe for baby consumption.  He is still nursing, 4-5 times a day, and has been my easiest, least fussy nurser.  As long as we're in a dark room with a noise machine on, that is....  He is easily distracted. :)   I haven't thought much about weaning, except we will probably go 18 months +, or until a good reason comes up to wean.

We like each other a whole lot!

On sleeping...
From day 2, he was never fussy at night. Like, never (ok, ok, there was that one time at 4 months, two times at 9 months, and four times at 10 months...).  He was always great at going back to sleep once I nursed him, and believe me, I am grateful...I know that is not the case for many mamas out there! Up until around 8-9 months, when he was well established on two naps a day, he wasn't a great napper, but at six months Judah gave me a beautiful gift when he started sleeping all night.  The norm is 11-12 glorious hours a night...he is such a rockstar!  Currently, at 14 months, he takes a 1 hour nap in the morning, a 1 1/2-2 hour nap in the afternoon, and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. Because he is content and chill, he doesn't show many sleep cues, so I've settled on appropriate waketimes for his age, and put him down to sleep based on that.  We've had several bumps to his sleep patterns along the way, but thanks to a little sleep training here and there, they have smoothed out relatively quickly.

On his brothers...
It is so fun to watch him and his big brothers interact.  Judah is the recipient of many passing hugs, kisses, and spontaneous squeezes from Isaiah and Ezra. They've never shown any signs of jealousy at all towards Judah, but vary between loving on or ignoring him.  As Judah gets older and more involved he is harder to ignore though. :)   They read books to him, stack blocks for him to knock down, dance around him, make funny faces at him to make him laugh, and occasionally say, "Oh Judah, why do you get into everything!" with a big sigh. (I have no idea where they would hear those words....ahem.)

This pretty much sums it up...Ezra constantly harassing Judah and Judah making faces back at him!

This was today - "Look Mom, I'm holding Judah!" 

On toddlerhood...
In the last month, Judah has learned to walk. He now does so proficiently. It's really incredible how fast babies grow up, and how fast they learn.  With this newfound skill, Judah is also developing some other traits that are not quite as....desirable.  We have heard him starting to imitate the scream his brothers' make when frustrated or angry.  He has started to (greatly) protest diaper or clothes changes. And he most definitely is letting us know when he is not happy because he doesn't get his way. So while the first 13 months of his life were defined by "calm" and "happy", I think toddlerhood has brought out another side of our third child.

Walking outside in the dirt is AWESOME!

I seriously can't get over these sunglasses on this kid

On playtime....
It is definitely interesting to observe our third child and what playtime looks like...as a third child. Because he is constantly entertained by the activity of his brothers, I have to be very deliberate to intentionally play with him.  I have also found reading with him to be much more of a challenge.  We have made a conscientious effort from the time our boys were small to read to them a ton, and they have developed a great love for stories and book! With Judah...it's been hard.  Once he was old enough to really be mobile, he didn't like sitting for the older boys' books (which is understandable), but the big boys are not satisfied reading Judah's baby books (also understandable). All that to say, Judah has been read to waaay less at this point of his life than our other boys.  Still, all is not lost (at least that's what I keep telling myself)!  The last month or two (since I've realized this lack in his life), I've been trying to be equally conscientious to read to him.  Lately Judah's been digging through his book drawer in his room, pulling out books, looking at them, and then carrying them over to us so we can read it to him. It's very cute!

You know when you should be doing something, but you're not?  Well, there is a time when Judah is decidedly not happy, and that is when I have him do independent playtime.  I wrote a whole post a while back on what that is, the benefits of IP time, and how to do it here.  When Judah was young, he was so content to be by himself, that I didn't worry about doing consistent IP time.  However, when I did it a few months ago, when he was about 10 months, he HATED it. With a passion.  It sounded like it was the worst....5 minutes....of his life. And unfortunately, I haven't been consistent with it since--really only when I need him off the floor or it a safe contained space for a few minutes (I'm talking 15 minutes, max).  And it doesn't matter how many toys, what toys, music, or other entertainment is provided....Judah is not a fan. (*cue instantaneous loud wailing*)

This is really my fault, and I kick myself for not doing it consistently when he was young, like I did with Isaiah.  But, that is one of my goals for the summer...consistent IP time for Judah. We'll start small (probably 3-4 minutes), use a timer so he eventually knows I come when the timer goes off, and really, just try to follow my own advice so we can all experience the wonderful benefits that come from Independent Playtime!!!   I would love for him to be content for 30-45 minutes at a time, so that when Fall rolls around, it will be a great way I can do some focused school or activities with the older boys when we need a little toddler to not be underfoot.

On communicating...
Judah has not said his first word yet (that we can understand anyway).  He makes lots of word-like syllables and sounds, so I think he's pretty close.  With all of our kids, we have taught them some baby sign language, and Judah has definitely been the quickest to pick it up, and the most proficient at using what he knows.  We haven't taught him tons of signs, but there are a few key ones we use all the time. I find it such a valuable skill for them to be able to communicate before they can talk.  I mean, they already know what they want (or don't want), that is for sure! Today he was in a swing at the park, looking a little unsure after a while, and then put his hands up and signed 'all done' very timidly (I think he was afraid to let go of the tray!).  It was super cute.

Every child in a family brings such different joys, challenges, and contributions to the family dynamic, and we feel incredibly blessed that the Lord saw fit to add this precious child into our family!

We love you Judah!