New Baby

Babies do not come with instruction manuals. You'd think they should considering how important they are, though if people will not read warnings to keep their tongues out of the garbage disposal, I wonder if they would ever read a manual on babies anyway.  Having one baby throws most people for a loop, though you never know how easy one is until you have two! And since every child is different, one should never try to figure too much out ahead of time. These are just a few things while Cole was under two, before I forget.

Cole has bright blue eyes, just like his mum. Our kids got lighter eyes as they came - brown, hazel and now blue. He loves mommy, certainly the most "mommy's baby" of the three.

He does this cute "scoot crawl". Better to see in a video:

Definitely a cuddler. When he's upset or knows it is bed time, he'll put his head down on your shoulder. So sweet! "A++, would cuddle again. "

When he was about 3-9 months, he did this "rolling R cry." Like the rolling R of central or south America languages. That was Cole's "I'm really upset" cry. It was not as loud as a full cry from other babies, and since it sounded so cute we had to remind ourselves that he really was upset!

Miah was always with baby Cole, especially during his first year. Hugh was in school most of the time during those early months, but Miah and Cole have always been together. She was a good helper to mommy, and genuinely liked to care for him (not in just a "do this thing to help me out" kind of way).

The joke for third babies is real. They will survive without all those things the firsts had - like hand sanitizer, shopping cart covers, food that was not on the floor, brand new toys, etc. There was about a four year get between Miah and Cole, and I had forgotten all the baby things. They were fresh this time through, again : )

Misc Things from Room Cleaning

They other day I cleaned my room. Kind of because I am an adult, but mainly because my wife likes a clean room and house. We moved over two years ago and there was still a box in the corner of the room that somehow was just accumulating more stuff! That was my main goal, beyond my normal mess. For some reason I have a hard time throwing things away, and I have the ability to ignore clutter. Or step over and through it. Is it s super power? Possibly. Genetically, I could be a border-line hoarder. Thankfully one role of a spouse is to make us better versions of ourselves, so I started cleaning : )

To avoid throwing out something "important", that I will never look at again, I took some notes while cleaning which allowed me to get rid of trash I was saving.

I wrote down a little quote by Hugh in 2014 on some slip of scrap paper. He was five at the time. Hugh was reminded that his hat was from Gramps, and he wanted to call him. We told him he already thanked Gramps, and Hugh said, "I want to thank them. I want to remember." I liked that quote. We can thank people to remember : )

Somewhere in the room was Baby Aurora. This is Miah's most favorite doll. (Unavailable Amazon link, if it still works.) Hard plastic head, arms and feet, soft middle. Worn and dirty face. She has a puncture wound on the side of her head (don't know how that happened, though I do remember a bandaid on it for a while when it did). This is the item the can hold up bedtime, the most precious when we leave somewhere and ask, "Do we have the kids? Do we have the dog? Wallet, keys phone? Do we have baby Aurora?"

Live to Lead was a leadership simulcast I went too last fall and I found my conference notebook. I have intentions to review my notes from those things. I never do. Before chucking it, I did type up these nuggets (paraphrased from my notes) to reread on this old blog post someday in the future. (Hint: I never will.)

• "Leaders see more than others see, and they see before other see. Developing leaders grow to see more "more" and more "before". There is more-more and more-before out there! Think abundantly, not scarcity. " ~ John Maxwell

• "Organizations are not limited by their opportunity, they are limited by their leader. Your education, ability, capacity and vision is the limit to your organization . . . and these are choices; they can be learned." ~ Ramsey

• "Bosses push. Leaders pull. Everyone will know where we're going, so they don't need to ask! They adopt to the plan, because it's what they want too." ~ Dave Ramsey

• "If you are at the head of the class, get out of that class!" ~ Ramsey or Maxwell

Room is much cleaner now. Give it time, I'll have another blog post ready : )

Third Time Around - Birth Story

Going to the hospital to deliver one's third child would seem familiar. Jessica had healthy pregnancies and deliveries with number one and number two, so number three should be a walk in the park. And, spoiler alert,  for the most part it was! Of course, I'm writing this while Cole is two, so maybe I forgot some details.

Jessica was forty weeks when we scheduled the delivery. Still a natural birth, but our doctor does not see any benefit in waiting longer (and sometimes waiting too long adds complications). Waiting another week or so might have been better, and perhaps a little more natural, but we scheduled our time and drove to the hospital in the morning.  We did not know if this was going to be a boy or a girl, so for all the familiar sights (same hospital, same birthing suites, etc.) there was still some unknown anticipation.

It is kind of odd writing about this as the guy, as contractions and all that is not something I experience personally. Still, things seemed to go smoothly. The doctor set up with pitocin, like the first two, and then left for a few hours while the nurses helped us with everything else. He did try this "balloon" to help dilation but it was kind of a bust (pun!). Hours of being together, bouncing on the ball, and relaxing in the tub (well, Jess did all the bouncing and relaxing) led to Cole! (From a bed, as doc did not prefer tub births in the room we were in.) Clean up, first nursing and all the other baby firsts went very well too.

Gramps and Nana were watching Hugh and Miah, and came to visit the new baby while I ran out to get our traditional Domino's pizza (it is the closest pizza joint to the hospital). A few visitors stopped by and we went home after two nights as family of five : )

Side note regarding this hospital birth, Cole was the most expensive. Like dummies, we did not plan our pregnancy around the yearly insurance cycle and high deductibles, so all of the pre-natal stuff (and Jess's work, which is not a baby so is not pre-natal) had us nearing our deductible by the end of the year. Then our insurance year reset in December, and we started over on all the deductibles for Cole's birth in February! Insurance is weird.

Baby Guessing Game

Great job guessing when baby Himmelberger was going to arrive, and congratulations on a game well played! We had a fun contest with 31 entries : )

Cole Matthew Himmelberger was born Feb 11 (@19:34) weighing 7lbs 2oz and was 21" long.

I made a scoring system to determine the winner. Cole himself scored a perfect zero. Just like golf, lowest score wins!

• Date - 1 point for every day you were off
• Gender - 2 points if you picked wrong
• Weight - 1 point for every 3oz off
• Length - 1 point for every 0.25"
• For those that like charts, click here

Grand Prize goes to Nana (my mom, jeannie) scoring 1 point, with a guess of Feb 10, Boy, 7lbs 3oz and 21" long.

Honorable mention goes out to:

Zephan, the only guess for the correct date!

Heather, Gramps, Bridget, Chelsea, Grandad, Granny, Hugh, Cousin Beth, Jess B, Geoff and Miah for guessing the right gender.

Geoff, Luke W and Alanna did not tip the scales in the weight category. All were all within 3oz.

Alanna, Cousin Beth, Christina, Virginia, Miah and Cliff certainly measured up with perfect length guesses.

Nate had the highest score of 114, with a guess of Feb 7, Girl, 16lbs and 5.75" : )

Advent - Move or Sit?

The Advent season is a reminder to be ready for Christmas, and I need the reminder! Sometimes it feel that in "family culture" there is not a good time to slow down, and Christmas would pass us right by if we were not looking for it. (We have a pretty cool advent calendar to do with the kids to show the story of Christmas.) And it seems that our consumer culture would have us know Christmas is here, but for all the wrong reasons. Two commercials stood out to me around Black Friday: One was a commercial by Verizon with a line like, "Forget Thanksgiving, be ready for Thanks-getting!" and the other was a closing line by Best Buy speaking of all the tech gifts one can buy, "They won't just love them, they'll love you!" One cannot just buy Christmas, or its meaning!

As I read Matthew 2 I was thinking about the wise men's visit to the newborn Jesus. We do not know much, but these guys traveled from the east and were astronomers, scholars, thinkers. Some assume from Babylon (and the influence of Daniel) and a famous hymn tells us there were three (though no number is in the text). Their studies led them on a far journey to investigate a star where they worshiped the Lord. These guys were amazing - all that observing and learning led them on the journey of a lifetime. They were willing to go. They went! They found Jesus! I hope the same for me, in my thinking, in my life.

 Though it is the other scholars that made me think. It seems like at this point in the story, everyone in Jerusalem is waiting for a Messiah and they know He will be born in Bethlehem. The wise men visit and Herod is asking, yet no one moves! Herod does, but it was for all the wrong reasons. The others? They knew the scriptures and they did not go. Not with the wise men and not on their own. That is what caught my attention. Did they want to study more? Were they not convinced? Perhaps they were, but did not want to travel. Or maybe be seen traveling? Or just something else. The answer is on the tip of their tongue and the Messiah a few miles away - and they did not go. Exactly the opposite of what I hope for me, in my resolution, in my life.

It is good we have Advent and I must keep setting aside time to ponder Christmas. Rejoice in Christmas. Look forward to Christmas. Teach my kids about Christmas. In Miah's preschool last week, her teacher asked them, "What is the best thing about Christmas?" Many students said things like "presents," which is pretty safe answer, and quite understandable as most of the class is four : ) Though Miah said, "Jesus is the best thing" (or "it's Jesus' birthday") and her teacher was happy, as were her parents, and I think those magi would have bene too. Being wise is not just sitting around with the thoughts of the day locking us in place, or to have a lot of knowledge and doing nothing with it. Real wise men (and wise little daughters) are willing to move; to go find Jesus at Christmas!

Noble Roberts

I've heard that back in 70's and 80's a large number of kids would want to be astronauts when they grew up because of the heroes they saw during the Space Race. That has dwindled in recent years, with our lack of manned space exploration and  push for STEM education in America. Other jobs have held kids interest like "doctor", "teacher", "policeman", "fireman", perhaps because of their nobility as careers.

Sometimes Hugh talked about being a police man when he grew up, which is a noble choice and a  personal chance to stop robbers, I suppose. Thankfully stealing is one of the few crimes Hugh knows about. One day on the way to school the news was on, and there was a story of a shootout between police officers and some people in a warehouse. One of the cops was injured, and Hugh double checked that story,

"Did the police get shot?"
Jess replied he did.
"How?"
Jess explained that the bad guys were also shooting at the police officers.

Hugh thought a moment, and said, "I don't want to be a policeman any more." How our career aspirations change! No less noble, maybe just not for everyone : )

When Hugh was five he played a game on our tablet where a Lego policeman caught Lego robbers - and you knew they were robbers because they wore black and white striped shirts and black baklavas : ) Hugh called these guys "roberts", which was adorable, and knew they were the bad guys. He liked catching the bad guys in the game, though I was impressed with his nightly prayers on this matter. One night he started praying "that the roberts would stop stealing" and I'm glad he knew that stealing wasn't a good thing to do. A few days later he changed his prayer to one of social justice, that "the roberts would stop stealing and give back all the things they took." Yes! What a great day that will be indeed. I hope Hugh keeps praying noble prayers, and his career aspirations can come later : )

The Apple Cider Challenge

During our early years in NY, one of our favorite type of evenings was gathering some friends and playing board games. Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Elfenland and others were some of our favorites, and we had such a fun group with which to play. "Watch out for Jess." There were many great nights around dining room tables! Games played at the Himmelberger home were recorded on "the board" - a chalkboard attached to our dining room wall when we bought the house. We did not know what to do with it for months, but recording a game's title, winner and date seemed like a good option. Winners would be remembered for all time . . . until the board got full and we'd erase it to start over again : )

Sometimes the board would have an odd phrase or two, inside jokes or hidden words among the chalky letters. One fall, during apple season in NY, where delicious apple cider is plentiful, my friend Aaron boasted winning the Apple Cider Challenge. As I recall, we did not put a dent into the gallon jug that night, though once something was on the board we rarely had a reason to take it off.

It was during this board cycle that my Uncle Norton (wife's dad's brother) was making trip around the world and stopped by our home for a few days travelling West from his home in England. He served in the British Army and he once traveled East around the world on duty and technically lost a day to the time zones, so during this trip he was gaining it back! Norton was a tall man, with a booming voice and British accent, and upon seeing the board, asked, "What is an 'Apple Cider Challenge'? I gave a quick explanation of the board and that it was a joke between a friend and I.

Uncle Norton passed away a few years ago, and it wasn't until after his death that I realized something about this story. While with us, Norton would always ask for "apple crush" to drink with his meals. And having visited England a few times for work, I should have realized that across the pond "cider" is mainly "hard cider" - delicious, but alcoholic. So that "Apple Cider Challenge" Norton asked about? Riiiiight . . . he thought we must have had quite the night! (Did I mention my friend Aaron, who "won" the challenge, is a pastor?!!) When I see Uncle Norton in Heaven, and if we have a break from worshiping (he did like to sing too), this is definitely something I will need to clear up : ) We use to laugh about the story years ago, and I think I laugh about it more now. And still enjoy a nice apple crush in the Fall.