May 23, 2008 by mommy.

Those who are on our snail mail list will be receiving Emily’s 3 year and Norah’s 5 month pictures sometime next week. Emily looks so grown up. If you look closely, you will see a pink flower in some of her pictures. I didn’t realize it until I got the pictures back from the studio, but it is the same flower that she held in her very first studio pictures when she was 1 month old. How fun to come full circle like that. The girls continue to look alike, but each have their different looks as well. There are still times when I look at Norah and feel like I am looking at Emily as a baby.

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May 23, 2008 by mommy.

So Norah is sick - again. The poor thing has a runny nose, weepy eye, and yucky cough. Today she seems to be a bit better, at least her eye has improved. She does not like it when I try to wipe her nose so I hope she gets better soon. The other problem that has developed is that she does not want to fall asleep on her own lately - she wants to be cuddled. I really do not want to have to resort to “crying it out” but Norah has been putting herself to sleep since 3 months of age and now she has suddenly changed her mind…if this situation continues, we may have to take “extreme” measures. Not much fun but beneficial in the long run. I remember when Emily was this age she would test us every month or two by crying at bedtime and when she realized that wasn’t getting her anywhere, she would go right back to talking and cooing herself to sleep. Come to think of it, she still does this to this day…

Anyway, on to the story that gives this post its title. Norah was coughing as I put her into her carseat the other morning and Emily said, “Mom, tonight we should pray for Norah’s cough to go away at bedtime.” I told her that was very nice, but that we can pray anytime we want to, we don’t have to wait until bedtime, and would she like to pray right now? She said she would and then folded her hands and said, “Dear Jesus, thank you for taking away Norah’s cough, Amen.” It made me smile at the way she prays (everything is always “thank you for…”) but her prayer reminded me of two valuable lessons. First of all, she prayed with confidence that Jesus indeed was going to take away her sister’s cough. And second, she began with praise. How often do we jump right into our selfish prayers of what we think God needs to do for us, without taking the time to praise the Almighty Creator of the universe? Thanks, Emily, for helping me grow in my Christian walk. Mommy loves you, and your little sister too.

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May 22, 2008 by daddy.

Big news, Emily is now moved around to the big people side of the table still using the blue booster and Norah is in the high chair!  Norah is enjoying solids and from time to times gets a little messy with them.  Emily like to retell that when daddy was away once Norah got squash all the way up to her forehead.

Also, below is an updated family photo of the latest Loons game that we attended.

God Bless,
The Lacher Family

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March 17, 2008 by mommy.

Emily conquered some big demons this weekend and stepped on and off an escalator all by herself (holding Daddy’s hand). She had tried to do it once in the past holding Mommy’s hand but at the last minute I freaked out a bit. You see, I was worried that she would fall, and then I would fall, and then…well, let’s just say I came close to damaging her for life in regards to escalators just like my own little hang-up with them (note to self: remember to ask Mom if I had a run-in with an escalator in my childhood). But thankfully, Dan and I are persuasive parents and we convinced Emily to be brave and she did it! She was actually excited to go down and show us what a big girl she was!

So, flash forward to this morning. She was reading one of her books while I fed Norah. She was spelling out the title letter by letter - Good Morning Farm! When she got to the “!” she said, “Is this an I?” I said that it was called an exclamation point and explained to her what it was for. So then she started over and spelled the whole thing again. “…F, A, R, M, escalator point.” I guess the escalator bravery had quite an effect on her! I thought it was so cute!

We had a great weekend. Uncle Marc came to visit. He and Emily were fast friends - reading books, playing games, and doing puzzles. Norah also liked looking at Marc - probably due to the same shade of hair as big sister. It was too short of a visit but it was really nice to see my little brother again. My favorite moments? Listening to various songs on iTunes and reminiscing about the old days, and praying with him and the rest of the family. Good to see ya Marc. Hope to see you again soon.

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February 27, 2008 by mommy.

Norah had her 3 month pictures taken today. Despite my best attempts of a nap and feeding right beforehand, she withheld her million watt smiles. I am sure the pictures will still be beautiful. Of course, all night tonight she has been smiling and talking with us. She also finally rolled over again! For those of you who get the monthly newsletter from us you know she first did this several weeks ago but had taken a hiatus from the activity. In fact, she downright despised tummy time right up until…oh, about today or so! But tonight she is in a very good mood and has been playing on the floor with us a lot. Emily is in bed for the night.

Norah is sleeping 6-8 hours at night before wanting to get up and eat, so that has been wonderful. The other big news is that I go back to work full time on Monday, so we are just enjoying these last few days together. My favorite infant teacher left our daycare so I will try not to be too traumatized when I drop her off on Monday.

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February 27, 2008 by mommy.

Emily had a number of quotables today that I thought I would share:
1. In response to Norah’s little coos and such: “Oh, you almost said watermelon - you said ‘wa’!”
2. Upon hearing Norah crying on her playmat while I was in the bathroom, Emily sprinted from her room to Norah’s room and I overheard this: “Are you lonely little one? I’m here with ya. Yeah, I’m here with ya.”
3. While driving home from church tonight, Emily asked me where the moon was and I said I wasn’t sure because I couldn’t see it. She said, “It must be behind all the darkness.” How precious is that?

In other Emily news, she now knows how to write her name! I am so proud of her. She first did it on February 11. I haven’t been pushing it too much. I didn’t even teach her how to write the letters - she has been exploring on how to write them since she knows what they all look like.

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January 31, 2008 by daddy.

Norah oh wonderful gift from the Lord you have started to coo and smile. It is such great joy to sit and listen, watch and coo back. The other night after your big sister was in bed, I laid you down on the play mat and you kicked away, watched the flying birdie and just coo’ed away for what seemed like forever. The precious times that we hopefully never forget.

Love,
Daddy

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January 31, 2008 by daddy.

The other night I had the laptop on the island in the kitchen and it was playing the “random stuff” play list. Included in the random stuff is “Ice Ice Baby”. We happened to have all ready sat down for dinner when the song came on. Emily stops eating looks over at the island and turns back, with a very concerned look on her face. We asked what is it… she said daddy your cell phone. Well I can’t fault her there, since the ring tone on my cell phone is just that. I was so wonderful to see her make the connection to the song… oh the things children are listening to and we don’t even have a clue.

Love,
Daddy

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January 2, 2008 by daddy.

Based on a conversation the other day with Emily, I am now in search of a toy espresso machine. She was playing in her new kitchen and I was being served a slice of cake. I asked if I could have a cup of coffee, she informed me that she did not have an espresso machine so I was getting tea. Fair enough… that means that daddy needs to get her a espresso machine for practicing. She all ready gets up on the counter when I am making drinks at home. She know the process: grind, dose, tamp, polish, lock it in, pull the shots, knock it out. That is my little barista.

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December 13, 2007 by daddy.

Two weeks ago the world changed again, the Lord shown down His face as another child was delivered into this world. Early Thursday morning we awoke and started out the day like any standard day, take Emily to day care… but this day we headed to the hospital for the birth of our second child. We left Emily with hugs, kisses and words of encouragement and ensuring she knew that Dave or Jen would be picking her up.

As we arrived at the hospital we headed back to our room… turns it it was going to be the one that Emily was born in, well the one we stayed in at least, so we asked to be moved. We are not superstition people but asked anyways. We were blessed to have Nurse Sue by our side again for the day. Sue is a wonderful woman of God from our church that is nurse on the maternity floor. With the history from the first time she was able to help Erin be at ease for the day and we knew that she was interceding to our Heavenly Father on our behalf as well.

Labor went well, Erin can go into the details in person, and were did a lot more walking loops this time. The loops where enjoyable, holding my wifes hand and praying for the safe and healthy delivery of our second child, smile from all of the staff as we moved around. This time labor went all natural and not extra boost (vitamin p) was needed. Cut to the chase, labor progresses and it was time for the big moment. Next thing we knew Norah was in this world and looked wonderful. I don’t know if the doctors took note and don’t yell it out but it was the first one in the room to exclaim that it was a girl, the same was true with Emily.

Wow to see the birth of our second child was just as breath taking as the first, to be able to hold Erin’s hand the whole time and be speaking words of encouragement to her was so awesome. While Norah was over on the baby warmer getting all cleaned up and checked out she looks just like Emily did laying there. I know a lot of people have said that and I agree. I am excited to see and be present to see the distinct and wonderful young girls, ladies, women that they grow up to be.

Wow, now two weeks in and there is one thing to remember… that babies this young don’t keep a schedule so it always changes. Erin’s mom is here to be a set of helping hands around the house, with Emily and with Norah. Erin and I are getting into the flow and just love on our girls. Emily is adjusting, to being a big sister and helps out where she can (getting clean diapers is the main one).

We are blessed to have a good portion of the basement finished now and have new carpet down so that we can play and enjoy the space. There is some work still to do main in the office and the bathroom.

Lord God we give you all glory for these children that you have placed into our home for us to raise and call our own. Emily and Norah you are gifts from the Lord. We pray that you will come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, give your heart to Him. He has awesome and wonderful plans for you and we pray that you will follow Him all the days of your life.

God is good all the time.

Love,
Daddy

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