an historic occasion

Although the election of the nation's first African American president will probably be recorded in history books for decades to come, our few firsts for the week are unlikely to find themselves recorded anywhere but in our homely little blog.

Aside from doing our patriotic duty by voting (where, incidentally, Dan and I cancelled out each other's votes. We'll leave you to guess who voted for whom.), this week has been remarkably incident free. While this could be construed as having a "boring" week, we manage to stay busy and interested in most of our lives. Andrew spent the first part of the week recovering from his stomach bug (we took him to the doctor on Monday, and the doctor, gravely sympathetic, said that Andrew had the stomach flu and an ear infection--and the first meant that he couldn't get oral antibiotics for the second, but to come back if Andrew's ear infection seemed much worse and he'd get a shot). I managed to spend the second half of the week sick myself--not, thank goodness, with the stomach flu, but with a cold that was miserable enough for all that.

We rescued Andrew's old Graco jumper from the piles of stuff in the boys' room and tried it out on Evelyn. She seems to like it, although she was pretty bemused by the camera when I tried to take her picture (this is the least deer-in-the-headlights of the pictures I took). Her head has a tendency to list a little to the right. I'm not sure if this is because she's still developing strong neck muscles, or something I need to worry about--at any rate, I'll ask the doctor on Wednesday when I take her in for her six-month check-up. (Hard to believe that tomorrow she'll be six months old! Unless Lia's in the hospital right now, there's also a chance that she might be exactly six months older than her cousin Catherine . . .)


We also dug out some of Andrew's old toys for her to play with, but so far, Andrew seems more interested in the toy than she is. (Ironic, that, since he didn't show that much interest in the toy when it was exclusively his . . .). This is a little worrisome, since we bought the corresponding animal zoo for Evelyn for Christmas . . . . At least it's a toy that Andrew can enjoy playing with her!

Speaking of toys, we took Andrew to the toy store on Saturday after his swim lessons (an outing that Dan has vowed will not be repeated--the toy store, that is, not the swim lesson). On our way there, Andrew made us both laugh. We'd asked him what we should get Evelyn for Christmas, and he said, quite consideringly, "Well, let's wait and see what they have and then we'll decide" (a phrasing that was so nearly my own that I might have said it!). Andrew's got a pretty good ear for mimickry--earlier this week, while we were outside, Andrew crouched down by one of Grandma's dying petunias and said, "It's such a beautiful day, Mommy! The birds are singing and the flowers are blooming . . ." (the latter two phrases are ones I use every time I tell him "Little Red Riding Hood").

In other news, Dan is still applying for jobs and I'm entering into yet another hectic phase at work, since we're actively recruiting Writing Fellows for next semester--we had an info meeting this week and applications are due next week (which means the week after that will be *CRAZY* as we try to sort through the 50-60 applications we're expecting). If any of you know good writers currently at BYU--encourage them to apply! (You can send them to http://writing.byu.edu).

One last first for the week--we fed Evelyn rice cereal for the first time, thus beginning her long, slow process towards weaning (though she doesn't know that yet!). I initially tried mixing the cereal with formula, but she did not like that at all, so we resorted to thawing some of the frozen breast milk from when she was in the NICU. She seemed to like that much better.

On a totally different tangent, I feel like I ought to share an unexpected "tender mercy" of the Lord that I experienced this morning. I've noticed that some of the more recent lessons in Sunday School (particularly today's lesson on the Second Coming, but also the lesson a few weeks ago on Trials) have had a darker edge to them--and given the worrrisome state of the economy right now, I think it's easy to get a little depressed about the future. I know that I was feeling worried--and guilty for feeling worried (where was my faith?). Not so much about the economy, because history has shown that will eventually right itself, although it may be a painful process to get there, but more about the possibility that the worsening economy could lead to the collapse of governments predicted before the Second Coming. That, combined with this secret fear I have of something catastrophic happening to my family (after all, since every one must bear some kind of trial, what's to say this won't be mine), has been weighing on me quite a bit recently.

But this morning--in what some might call a "happy accident," but I prefer to think of as a "tender mercy," I read Elder Uchtdorf's talk on hope and Elder Wirthlin's talk "Come What May, and Love It," one right after another. What I took away from those two talks was the comforting reassurance that though our lives will be difficult at times (and though we don't want to trivialize those difficulties), our hope, rooted in Christ, can carry us through these difficult times. And that, no matter what happens to us in this life, if we are faithful, we will reap joy in the life to come. I just need to remember not to have such a short-sighted perspective on things!