Happy Birthday Lillian

Lily-um's: Balannana Mussah
Here my tums
Yai-ya
Ha-ha
What doin?
Oatmeekle

The cute words have made way for much larger words:

"you dumb little stinker pants, skunk bum Samuel"

1st birthday!


THE Birthday.



These two have both changed a little over the past five years!

I probably couldn't get Caleb to do silly stuff like this anymore.

I don't think I could get Niah to do this again either (not enough pink).
Lillian on the other hand still runs around half dressed.

Someone recently asked me if Lillian enjoyed ballet. I laughed and told them that she seems to enjoy Kung-fu dancing. Samuel is a head banger and Lillian is Princess Karate Kid. She actually got so tricky the other day that she knocked her feet out from under herself and fell flat on her tummy. I know I did stuff like that when I was little.

Fablious!
Lillian sings, not only in the shower but at two o'clock in the morning . Twice now I have been up with Samuel and have peeked in only to find her singing uninteligable songs in her sleep.
This was last year. She is getting a bike this year. I hope she hasn't outgrown the helmet.

This is actually Samuels birhday party. We miss our Blacksburg friends!

Lillian loves to paint. She paints wounds alot, they are always in the process of being healed. As in,"A fox bit that deer, but the deer is gonna make it". She just really loves redemptive stories.

These are new; Lillian in Seattle.




Lillian Redmond. It seems like just a few months ago that Leah and I were reading up on child birth and trying to get our minds around "Parenting". To be honest I am still trying to get my mind around that one and feel like an imposter most of the time. I am so proud that I get to be Lillian's dad. She is so vibrant and full. She is contemplative and serious. She loves to "science" (I guess science can be a verb) and she can become totally immersed in her work. She peeled a whole 5 lb bag of carrots in one sitting the other day. She was so satisfied that she had a part in the production that she just got in the zone I guess. Without something to work on she can get pretty ornery too. I guess I see a bit of myself in her, and that pleases me in a way that doesn't feel like vanity. Somehow though, there is enough in her that is foriegn to me that I I can't take full credit for Lillian Redmond. She is a real socialite. We went to meet a family from our new church for dinner and Lillian coached me on the way over on how to make a good impression. She wanted the little girl her age to know that I am a nice guy, so I needed to be careful to smile really big and say hello in a friendly way.

I see so much beautiful potential in her. I'm so glad for the Grace that assures me Lillian is much more than the sum of her biological parts. That she will be more than her mother and I can make her. Regardless of the potential, I enjoy just being with her. On one of our visits to Columbia from B-burg, an old gentleman in Lizzard's Thicket looked thoughtfully at me carrying Lillian to our table and told me I sure was lucky to have a little neck hugger. Well she may be a big ole five year old, but I'll enjoy having a little neck hugger as long as I can.

-Nick