The Mercy of Parenting

I had a really great idea...as we planned to leave for Louisiana I thought it would be good to begin our second day driving as early as possible. If we left at 4:00 A:M I would be able to get in several hours of peaceful driving before the girls woke up. I relished visions of driving down an empty road, cup of coffee in hand, with peaceful sleeping babies in the back. Ahhh....

This is when you know you've become a really lame grown up, when you find yourself day dreaming about a peaceful road trip. Don't get me wrong, I love spending the time with my family. But, there's just something about changing your fifth dirty diaper at a rest area in 100 degree heat in Alabama that makes flying seem like a better idea.

So anyway, I put my plan into action at 4:15 A:M. I packed us up from Erin's grandmother's house in North Carolina, put the girls in the car, apolgized to Erin for insisting we left so early, and took my seat. All was going according to plan, except for one thing, we were low on gas. When I stopped to fill up at 5:45, the girls woke up....for good. Within twenty minutes my vision of a perfect peaceful morning was turned upsidedown. Karis was throwing up, Grace was crying in dramatic hunger pains, and Erin was revisiting the issue of my judgment in getting us all up so early.

As I looked in the rear-view mirror at Karis' sad and sleepy face I was struck with my own selfishness. I had planned the morning arond fulfilling my own vision of autonomous freedom. I did not want to be hindered with baby troubles. God's purposes in using babies as sanctifying tools of redemption are staggering. Jesus insisted that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must recieve it as a child (Mark 10). A child... utterly dependant, utterly helpless, and utterly needy. This is what we are, and in realizing this, we come to see the face of a Father, who is more fatherly than anything we could have imagined. For me, this is the mercy of parenting.

trying to get kisses

I never had the desire to kiss anybody with a “drooling problem” until I became a dad. How things change…I often trick Karis into giving me kisses by holding a yummy strawberry or something in between my teeth. She goes for the food and accidently gives me a sweet little kiss in the process. Then she gives a cute little giggle as she realizes she’s fallen for the same trick again.

"story time" gone wrong

Grace's favorite part of her bedtime routine is of course, "story-time." Every night we do two "Grace and Eli (her best friend)" stories and one "Jesus story". Grace has developed a very high standard for what she calls, "good stories" and "not such a good story." So last night, we didn't put her down until after nine, I thought she was falling asleep during her story so I didn't put too much effort into making it good. In fact, I didn't even know what I was talking about I was so sure she was sleeping. In the middle of it though, Grace sat up asking for some clarification as clearly my story had not made sense.

I felt guilty for not making it a better story so I got on my game immediatlely. I quickly turned a simple story about a day at the zoo into a dramatic action thriller, with my wife falling into the lions den. If your thinking there's something wrong with me for telling a two year old such an awful story, I agree. I was in the moment, what can I say? Mom was going to get rescued of course, but by the time I made the most life-like lion growl that I could muster, Grace was deep under the covers squeezing me for dear life. At first I thought she was playing along, but I quickly realized that she was quite scared. Thankfully she let me "try again". I ended up doing a story about a petting zoo where Grace got to take home a baby deer. Thankfully two-year olds forgive and forget better than we do. Peace, Jeremy

Very Funny Youtube, Thanks Village Church!

Funny youtube!

What Grace really does during nap time

After what seemed like a pretty good nap for Grace, maybe an hour, Erin and I heard her calling for us to come into the bedroom. It was cloudy outside so the room was unusually dark, but it didn't take long for me to notice that Grace's face was entirely black. After a closer look it was clear that Grace's "quiet time" during her nap, didn't involve her sleeping, but her applying an entire tube of Erin's mascara over the entire surface of her face.

Literally, nothing was left uncovered. From chin to cheek, lips, and nose, all were black. Since Grace isn't allowed out of her bed during nap time before the buzzer goes off (that's another story) I knew I shouldn't laugh at her. My only option was to leave the room and crack up outside. I sent Erin in and she managed to keep a strait face long enough to tell Grace to get in the shower. Knowing she was already in trouble, Grace wasted no time. Before we knew it the shower was on and Grace was inside soaking wet with all of her clothes still on.

At this point, Erin, being the loving wife she is, went to the mall, abandoning me to a soaking wet two year old, standing fully dressed in a shower, covered in mascara. Now it was just the two of us. I got in the shower with my best scrub cloth and prepared for war. Erin warned me it wouldn't be easy to get off, but I wasn't intimidated. When I stepped in the shower, however, Grace made it as clear as she possibly could that she couldn't deal with the issue at hand because she had to put on her swimming pool goggles.

As I looked down at the beaming smile of my two year old girl, swimming goggles on, covered and dripping in black mascara, fully dressed in wet red shirt, I could only smile back and think to myself, it doesn't get better than this.

This is a recent family picture. I have many things to write about but little time to write.. thought I could at least post the first family pic in a while.. see how great it turned out, ha ha!

Ella Wagner Turns Two

Ever wonder what happens when two football playing buddies from highschool each have two little girls and no boys? The video below will demonstrate the outcome. They have melted under the precious sunshine of baby girls... and they become toe nail painting doting daddies. It is pretty adorable to watch. This video is from our Goddaughter Ella's second birthday. Grace and Ella are great friends and love playing with their daddy's together. Dave I hope this doesn't ruin your reputation from being an All-American lacrosse player and record setting linebacker... well if it does it was well worth it!
You two are awesome dads!


Happy Birthday Ella!!!

It is hard for them to turn these little girls down... even when they want to paint their daddys' toenails'....