Laura Marie walked today! That’s how she celebrated turning 10 months old.
Laura Marie’s Baseball Card Collection
Laura Marie may be only 9 months old, but she’s already building her baseball card and autograph collection.
Her first baseball card was a 1991 Donruss card of former All-Star Bobby Bonilla. I gave it to her to help her start her collection. She promptly proceeded to bend it and chew it, as you can see below. I sent Mr. Bonilla the card along with a note explaining its condition, and he sent it back signed for her.
With her card collection underway, I wrote to Carl Erskine, a former All-Star pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers. I told him about Laura Marie, and he sent this card which he personalized for her:
Then there is Virgil Trucks, another former All-Star pitcher who is 92 years older than Laura Marie. I sent him a picture of his youngest fan. He sent her a baseball card and a postcard, both of them signed to her. Mr. Trucks also wrote a note about how beautiful she is. He suggested I might need a good bat to keep the boys away when they come calling on “this future Miss America.”
She’s off to a good start!
Laura Marie, Age 9 Months
Laura Marie turned 9 months old yesterday. It’s hard to believe that next month she’ll hit double digits. (Okay, so it’s double digits in months, but still.)
My Sweet Baby
Laura Marie has been out of the womb longer than she was in the womb. She’s growing up! She’s at a really, really fun age. What a blessing she is!
Popeye’s 90th
Today my grandfather, Popeye as we called him, would have been 90. Dude.
It’s funny how we give our grandparents odd nicknames when we’re really young, and then they seem strange to everyone else but perfectly normal to us. It wasn’t until I was about 20 that I realized that there aren’t too many other grandmothers out there called NeeNaw.
Just shows how my grandparents are extra unique!
A Christmas Carol Bi-Annual Date
Carolyn and I had our first date in six months yesterday. The last time we went out was the night before Laura Marie was born. We saw Night at the Museum 2, then went to dinner at Zia’s.
Yesterday afternoon our good friends Josh and Christi, along with their boys, watched the baby while we went to see A Christmas Carol. Man, it was good! Nearly every year we read or watch A Christmas Carol. It’s one of our Christmas traditions. So it was really cool to have a new version of it come out. Not only was it a new version, but it was 3-D in the theater–it was so cool!
We’d never seen a 3-D movie before. Now I’m hooked on it. We saw previews for some upcoming 3-D movies. I want to see them all! Even without the 3-D, it was a great version of the classic story. For the most part they stuck very closely to the book. One of the best parts was their depiction of Victorian London in a snowy December. I loved it. They also made the most of the 3-D effects. Now that I think about it, I’d like to see it again before it leaves theaters!
I figure having one date twice a year is probably a good place to start.
(By the way, if y’all see this, a big THANKS to the Engles for taking care of our baby!!!)
Baby’s First WinterFest of Lights
Last night Carolyn and I took Laura Marie to see the WinterFest of Lights in Ocean City. It was a special night. Carolyn and I have gone together to see the lights for 12 years in a row. It was so wonderful to have our little six-month-old baby daughter with us!
The baby really liked the lights. She was all bundled up so that I could only see her eyes and nose. She stared intently at the lights, only occasionally glancing around and looking at me with an expression that seemed to say, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” She was awed.
After the ride through the lights we took her inside to see the Christmas trees that various organizations decorated, and she stared at the colorful lights and sparkling tinsel.
Our baby is starting to be introduced to family Christmas traditions! We’re really excited about creating new Christmas traditions with her.
Half
Today Laura Marie is half a year old. Six months ago Carolyn woke me up about 6:00 a.m. and told me her water broke. Our lives have never been the same since. We knew that having a baby would be awesome, but Laura Marie is so much more wonderful than anything we ever could have imagined.
Once she was born, one of the things I most looked forward to was seeing her smile. She didn’t disappoint. Her smile is just unbelievable. If I got hit by a car and broke every bone in my body, then saw her smile at me, I’d probably forget that I’d even been hit by a car.
Our daughter is now 1/2. Another six months and she won’t be zero anymore! What an incredible blessing.
Sledgehammers, Cute Babies, Cosby, and the Devil
What’s happening:
- We’re halfway through the Revealed series at CrossWay. Last Sunday I preached about the devil–the dragon of Revelation 12. It just worked out that it was the day after Halloween.
- Carolyn and I have watched every episode of The Cosby Show. We just finished the eighth and final season. Now that’s good television! I don’t know how long it took, probably about three years. Being able to watch an entire show like that is one of the advantages of Netflix.
- Several churches in our community came together last Saturday for our annual Harvest Fair. This year we had about 1,300 people. The size of the crowd grows every year. Laura Marie was dressed as a flower for the first half of the night, then switched to her pink poodle costume. She was absolutely adorable! This year was especially cool for me because I got to smash a pumpkin with a giant sledgehammer. If only I’d known several months in advance, I could’ve grown my hair long in the back and on the sides to complete the Gallagher effect.
- It’s picture week at the Training Station, and they were kind enough to take our family portrait. Our first one!
Stuff
Stuff:
- We’re almost halfway through the series “Revealed” at CrossWay. It’s going well, but I wish I had another two or three months to prepare for it! Guess I’ll always feel that way. Sermons are like paintings–it’s hard to reach a point where I can say, “It’s finished.”
- Laura Marie is eating “solid” food! Doesn’t look that solid to me, but I guess it’s solid compared to milk. She really likes the peas, green beans, and carrots, but the sweet potatoes seem to be her favorite so far. It’s so cute to watch her eat with a spoon!
- I’m really pulling for a Yankees-Dodgers World Series. That’s the classic matchup, and it hasn’t happened in 28 years. Unfortunately the Phillies don’t seem like they’re keen on the idea. And the Angels aren’t exactly one step away from elimination. We’ll see.
- Cheez-its rock. And now they have some made with whole grain, which are even better.
- Greg Cooper, the youth pastor at Ocean City Worship Center, is leaving soon to become the pastor of a church in Columbia (Maryland, not South America). I’m sad. Happy for Greg and his wife Heather, but sad for the community, the Worship Center, and me. Greg is such a tremendous asset to our community. His absence will leave a hole in our ministry to the teenagers in this area. He’s also a lot of fun to hang out with and very encouraging. Today we’re having our last hurrah at Plaza Tapatia, which I think is the only place we’ve ever met for lunch except for one time in D.C. God bless you, Greg and Heather! (Sniff sniff.)
- Autumn is totally the best. I love the smell. If I ever took two months off, I think I’d take all of October and November and just sit on the back porch watching the trees, drinking Vanilla-Macademia coffee, and listening to the wind. And maybe reading a 19th-century Russian novel.
- A couple days ago I finished reading Monster by Frank Peretti. It was really a great read. I’d forgotten what an amazingly talented writer Peretti is.
- About a month or so ago, Carolyn and I started having a community group at our house. We talk, pray, read the Bible (we’re going through the Gospel of Mark), and eat. It’s wonderful.
- Speaking of Mark, I’ve been studying it for a couple months. It’s been great to slow down and really spend time in Mark. It’s been spiritually invigorating.
