Hello all. Scott here, posting under Jaime’s name. I’m taking a brief detour from cute family photos, videos, and stories to put in a plug for a great book, or rather series of books.

Some of you may know of Andrew Peterson, who has been one of my favorite singer/songwriters since I first saw him open for Bebo who opened for Caedmon’s at a tiny church in Dade City Florida way back in 1997. He’s ridiculously good. Seriously, go buy all of his albums, especially ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, which is quite possibly the best Christmas-type album ever (without having a single standard Christmas song on it). Anyways, a few of years ago at his concerts he began talking about a book series that he was writing called ‘The Wingfeather Saga’. They seemed to me to be something like he would have come up with while making up bedtime stories for his kids. The first book was called ‘On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness’ – quite silly, I know (and so does he). I assumed it would be a whimsical kids fantasy story and though I always planned to read it eventually, I wasn’t particularly excited about it. It wasn’t until a few months ago when I saw that the second book in the series (‘North! Or Be Eaten’) was due out soon that I decided to go ahead and give them a shot.

I was honestly surprised at how great these books were. They definitely have the feel of a finely crafted bedtime story and are as funny as I thought they would be (he has a very interesting sense of humor), but I was amazed that the story itself was rich with plot, remarkable characters, great action, strong emotions, and just the right amount of mystery. Both books truly found a perfect balance where they are perfectly suited for a grown man to read and enjoy, and yet I cannot wait to read them out loud to Will, Kirstine, and Benjamin. I talked Jaime into reading them, and she thoroughly enjoyed them as well. Andrew has said that there are five books planned for the series (‘if everything goes according to plan, and it never does’), so we are looking forward to keeping up with them as they come out.

So this is my plug for all of you to run out and get these books. Read them for yourself and read them to your kids. If you take my advice and don’t like them, I’d be happy to buy you a cup of coffee and tell you why you’re wrong.

Here’s the cover of the second book (by which you can judge it) and a brief author bio:

Andrew Peterson is the author of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Book One in the Wingfeather Saga, and The Ballad of Matthew’s Begats. He’s also the critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter and recording artist of ten albums, including Resurrection Letters II. He and his wife, Jamie, live with their two sons and one daughter in a little house they call The Warren near Nashville, Tennessee. Visit his websites: www.andrew-peterson.com and www.rabbitroom.com

Baseball

Fall Baseball started today. fall ball is not the same as regular season baseball here like it is in florida. 7 weeks in a row on Sunday afternoons only from 1:30 - 3:30. the first hour they all practice together, rotating stations. the second hour they play a game. pretty sure the team he played with today will not be the team he will play with next week. basically it's just a 2 month practice session to get them more prepared for spring ball.

This first video is from the base running station. They were supposed to run straight through first base. Here's Will's first attempt:


Here's what he's supposed to do:


Here is his first hit!

Stories

This was Kirstine's bedtime story before nap today...
"Once upon a time there was a little bitty girl. And she was in the car. And she was driving fast. And she went to church to meet her friends."

Pictures of Benjamin

Notice Kirstine's hand in the two pictures. She always cups it when she's holding him or touching him.

And one of Will and Kirstine. See her black eye? That's self-inflicted marker.

Crying

We had crying at drop off today. On the way into school, Will decided to be a baby and started crying because he wanted to ride in the stroller and make me carry Benjamin. So random. Yesterday I tried to carry Benjamin in (in the carrier) and he cried because he wanted me to "stroll him" (meaning Benjamin). I got him over these tears quickly today, however he then decided that he didn't like school. And I know that whenever this attitude comes, tears will follow. And I feel like I've tried everything to make this not happen, but I have had no success. Kirstine ignored him and went to her class wonderfully. Now I have a morning off to catch up on much needed sleep!

School

Will and Kirstine both started preschool last week. Will goes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, and Kirstine goes Wednesday mornings only. (from 9am - 1 pm). Both of them did great. Will didn't cry at all (he usually cries when we leave him most places - just a weird phase he's been going through lately). His teacher said he did great and fit in great with the other kids. He's the only kid in his class that doesn't know anyone. Everyone else either goes to that church or has been in school there before. So he's the odd ball. But she said he didn't act that way, and the other kids treated him like he belonged. She also told me what a great colorer he was (it's true, he's pretty fabulous). No pictures. I thought about taking a picture on the first day, but really, it's just preschool. We'll definitely get first day pictures next year.

4 Weeks

Benjamin is 4 weeks old today!
The first 3 weeks of his life were pretty boring, as his brother and sister were in Tampa with their grandparents. But it's been anything but that since they came home! Will and Kirstine are both crazy in love with him, and don't leave him alone for a second. I'd probably say about half of their time-outs now are because they won't leave him a lone when we ask them to. The disobedience is not good, however it's still really cute that they love him that much.

Right now he's sleeping decently. He definitely had his days and nights mixed up for a few weeks, but the last few nights he's done pretty well.

So how does he measure up to Will and Kirstine? I don't remember too much about them as babies, which is probably why I keep having more. One thing I do remember: Will slept great the majority of the time, but when he woke up at night he was very hard to get back to sleep - and screamed a lot! Kirstine also slept pretty well for the most part, but a lot of times only on us. She'd fall asleep at the bottle, and then we'd go lay her down and she'd scream the second she touched the bed. So she slept on my chest lots of nights. Benjamin is incredibly happy when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and never screams. He just doesn't want to go back to bed. So it's good in the sense that he doesn't wake the other parent up, but whoever is up with him at the time has to stay up for a while. The last few nights have gone like this: he wakes up, I nurse him for 30 - 40 minutes, I give him 1 - 2 ounces of supplement, he falls asleep and I put him down, he starts whining 5 minutes later, I make Scott get up with him, Scott rocks the bassinet until he falls asleep, he wakes up 2 - 3 hours later.

Outings so far: None where there are crowds. He has been through the McDonald's drive-thru a few times, he takes Will and Kirstine to school with me (stays in his carrier in the stroller), we took him to the Aldridge Botanical Gardens the other night (stayed in his stroller), and went to church last night. There is overflow seating behind our sanctuary with screens to see the pastor. There was only one other couple back there. Right in front of that is the Nursing Room. So we spent the first 45 minutes of the service in there. This would not be practical at a standard church, since the service would basically be over, but since our service lasts over an hour and a half, we only missed about 1/4 of the sermon.

He makes adorable faces.