let's go read books!

yes, we hear that quite often, much to our delight Maria is indeed a lover of books.  We do feel bad when she just wants book after book after book and we have to tell her no eventually.
Maria managed to get Aunt Therese to read every Pooh book we had at the lake house, luckily we only had a small selection of them.  At our Culver house it would have been a long story time!  Thanks Aunt Therese!

can you clap your hands?

Anna just learned to clap her hands, and she has been saying uh-oh for about a week now.  And she popped her third tooth through on the top.  Thank goodness, because she was a bit off schedule and cranky for a couple weeks.
Enjoy

Happy Valentine's Day

Look Alikes

So, I decided to put you to the test again.  See if you can figure out which is Anna and which is Maria...no cheating!  I'll let you know before the week is over.  And obviously 1 and 3 are the same girl and 2 and 4, in case you couldn't figure that part out! :)

By the way, there is a story to the "crazy sweater" as a girl called it at church this morning.  We received it as a gift from a church member back in DeMotte.  Unbeknownst to her it was from Ecuador, and I had served there for a year...what a strange coincidence!  Anyway, it is handmade and depicts animals and scenery from Ecuador.

bounce, bounce, bounce

We had a great time at Bremen Bounce for the play group.  Maria was off and running the moment we were in the door.  I had to retrieve her to get her shoes and coat off.  We were the last of our group to leave, and Maria still had tears from not wanting to leave, well, that and probably being tired.  Anna was awesome the whole time, thanks to a nap on the way up.  She fell asleep within about 2 minutes on the way back home.  Daddy went to Indy for the evening so the girls had pancakes for dinner, early bed for the girls and some quiet time alone in the house for mom.  It's off to bed for me now.
We have plenty to praise God for;

floor time

Just chillin on the kitchen floor!

reasons to celebrate

Happy One Year Birthday Easton! Last Thursday our nephew turned one.  How can a year have already gone by?  We spent time on Sunday celebrating his big day.

Maria was trying to keep Easton from stealing her sippy cup...

she wasn't succeeding at it, but after all it was his cup she borrowed!

The birthday boy had fun with his new toys.  (Boy I wish I had a good picture of my brother, his dad, at this age so you could see how similar they look, especially that big lip sticking out!)

He enjoyed watching Maria blow the horn in celebration.

He already destroyed at least one horn earlier.

We have plenty to praise God for; Easton's first year of life!

lovin' on daddy

bye, bye

Anna's new trick!



We have plenty to praise God for; the ability to learn new things, even as an adult, His grace gives us room to grow.

8 Months

She sure is growing quickly.  When our nephew turned one on Thursday(Happy Birthday Easton!) I realized that Anna was just 4 months away from her own 1st birthday.

She can finally sit, by herself, for quite a while.  Watch out what's behind her though, she still takes a dive every once in a while.  We put away the swing and the bouncy seat as she was a bit too mobile for them.  One time she ended up trying to catapult herself over the side of the bouncy seat, and the swing had dead batteries, she never really cared for the thing anyway.  She doesn't care to be on her stomach, and usually rolls quickly to her back, and if we put her down on her back she will often roll over to her belly to get something and then flip onto her back again.  I imagine we don't have to worry about her walking too early, fine with me, especially since this house has stairs, something we never had to worry about with Maria.

Anna still makes Dada sounds, but has added whistling, raspberry blowing and lip smacking to her repertoire. The whistling is pretty funny, and she is so serious when she is trying to make noises.

We have moved her on to small bits of finger food.  She can pick them up but has yet to master getting them into her mouth.  She has made a sign that looks like milk several times and often will attempt to clap when you say "Yeah".  Just today I thought I saw her wave bye-bye to me when I was waving at her from the next room.

Still a great sleeper and takes two nice naps a day also.  We can't complain too much about anything, as she is a very happy little girl.  We do think she is working on some more teeth, but I think I said that last month and alas they haven't made an appearance yet.

What about big sister?  What is she up to these days.  Maria is all about imaginative play.  She LOVES to take care of her babies.  Feeding them, putting them to bed, changing messy diapers, complete with a "ew, it's a messy one".  I imagine she says a lot of the things she does to her babies because she hears us talking to Anna.

She is an amazing big sister.  I have never worried about her doing something hurtful to Anna, so I can leave the room and not panic that she is alone with Anna.  She adores Anna as much as Anna adores her.  She hugs and kisses on her, and has to give her a blessing before bedtime.

She also like to imagine her "friends" are coming on outings with us, or eating at the table with us.  She is adamant that they are there...case in point, we were ready to leave church last Sunday and larry turned and pulled his office door closed.  Maria suddenly broke into a loud, intense cry that her "friends were still in the office."  She was VERY SERIOUS too.  I tried to tell her that they had come out and were waiting in the hall beside us, but nope, Daddy had to open the door and she corralled them out with us.  And if you respond to her talking by mistake when she is actually talking to her friends, then you will most likely hear, "No, I am talking to my friends, silly".  She likes to say silly.

Maria is also pretty much 100% day trained, but still wears a diaper for naps and bedtime.  She used to have dry nap diapers every once in a while, but recently that hasn't been happening.  She is working hard on being independent about using the bathroom, but snaps and zippers sometimes make that a bit more difficult.

She is learning her letters and sounds.  I would guess that she knows over 90% of the letters by sight and we have been working on the sounds lately.  She is a energetic reader, getting stacks of books for us to read to her.  It breaks our hearts to have to tell her that we can't read all of them each time....especially at nap or bedtime.  It seems that she gets fixated on certain stories of characters too.  At night the story of choice that she listens too most often lately is Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I am just glad that she is listening to it, and I don't have to read it each night!

Most days she is a well behaved, happy girl, with the occasional 2 year old streak.  She does like to have a say in things, and be independent.  So we have to think in advance of how to avoid conflicts we know will happen.  It's rare to have several time outs in a week, so we consider ourselves pretty fortunate and wonder what the three's will bring.

We have PLENTY to praise God for; out two beautiful, wonderful daughters that bring joy to each day.

Keep praying

When I served in Quito, Ecuador back in 2001-2, I got to know many missionaries who still serve around the world.  I got an email forward from one of them who is good friends with a doctor who has gone with a medical mission team from HCJB to Haiti.  It always makes more of an impact with me when I have some connection to events happening.  So thought I would share what he has to say about what is happening there.  I also have a friend with two adopted children from Haiti.  These children still have family members living there and last I knew they were still awaiting news of their condition.  
Continue to pray for those responding to the call to help, those who are injured, displaced, and suffering in any way.  Pray that aid gets to those who need is most quickly.  Give if you can, we recommend UMCOR, because of our Methodist connection and the fact that 100% of what you donate goes directly to the cause, as administration fees are covered by other means.  


Hello all,
We are running out of diesel and instruments and clean sheets so I'll
take advantage of at least a partial slowdown to fill you in.

Arrived friday morning to Haiti airport aboard a luxurious Leer jet ...
flight donated apparently by the owner for relief.

Arrived at Mission friday around three o'clock ... brief
greeting and prayer from the exhausted folks who were manning the guns
until we arrived and then waded into the foray ... with hundreds of
people in the corredors since the beds were long ago full and most of
whom needed urgent surgery.  In spite of a two ortho guys and an
anesthesiologist there are so many other limiting factors for how much
surgery you can do ... but managed to get about ten cases in before
quitting at midnight.  Unfortnately the fastest ones are often the most
urgent ... amputations.  Six hours sleep and yesterday had a full day
and did about 15 surgeries.  Us non surgical types were out on the
floors trying to triage which cases were most likely to get complicated
if left longer ... Sepsis, infected compound fracturs and little kids
made up our priority list.   15 cases on saturday ... still finishing
after midnight ..more complicated cases that second day.

Now ... everything is short ... diesel for the electric plant to keep
the OR going, cast material, surgical supplies for "fixing" fractures,
food water .... everything except patients who continue to come in ...
changing the surgery list for the day as more advanced cases come in.
But ... praise the Lord ... people are trickling out too which is sort
of a miracle in itself.  I have asked almost all my patients that look
like they could go home soon ... do you have a home to return to ...
100% "no" so far.  Some have relatives who lived higher up in the hills
... but many of of the ones who could go home would eventually need
surgery and getting back and forth would be so hard.

Yesterday's hardest moment was being called to take a picture of a
little girl who looked to be 10 years old.  She had just died ... we
didn't even know she was in the hospital.  I suppose the docs who were
here before us knew she wouldn't make it so put us to work on the ones
who could.  The lady who translated for me ... whispered into my ear ...
"this is the sixth of their nine children who has died from this
earthquake.  They just want a picture" ... (Well figure out how to get
it to them).  Heartache and tragedy are soooo relative.

Last night's last patient to be seen by Dr. Nelson ... a two year old
with a large wound to her left leg and complete fragmented bones ...
tibia and fibula ... and lots of infection in wound.  Mark wasn't sure
what he would find so decided to clean the wound under an anesthesia
called Ketalar which leaves kids looking like they are sort of awake but
not feeling anything.  Cleaning the wound and finding such an important
injury put her first on the schedule today ... she will be next in when
the "lights go on".  Then we all heard her start singing ... first in
sort of a low voice and later stronger ... and it seemed happier!!  It
was in creole so of course none of useless Spanish and English speakers
could know what she was saying ... but a translator brightened up nearby
and said she is singing "I am saved, I am saved, I am saved ......"

Please pray about all this but unless you have something that HAS to
come back ... don't answer please ... just pray.  The system here when
it works is slow and downloading lots of encouraging remarks ... although
it would be a blessing,  would slow things down further.  I know you all
... thanks ahead of time for even unspoken support.  Everybody loves to
be prayed for and that's sure true of the Haitians.  (I just now heard
the plant go on .. back to work)

Love, Steve
Please pray for all

so you think you can whistle?

Anna sure looks like she is trying to whistle and sometimes she actually makes a sound, not very loud, but  she is so serious in her attempts.



This next video has some whistling, lip smacking and raspberry blowing going on...this girl is all about noises lately.

so you need some fiber you say?

Leave her within reach of the plant and give her 30 seconds and the poor plant has had a haircut.

nothing smells better than

bread fresh from the oven...challah...yum!

and we have legs and arms

Maria was drawing pictures the other morning and wanted me to come look.  She had drawn me, she said.  Notice she has progressed to the added arms and legs complete with hands and feet from her first drawing here.  She even gave me a bow, because I wear them so frequently you know!

Then I gave her a sheet to draw another, and she drew a picture of herself.  She was pretty excited about the picture and wanted to hang it up on the fridge for Daddy to see when he came home for lunch.

shake, shake, shake

Anna had just woken up from her nap and I kept hearing this knocking sound coming from her room.  I couldn't figure out what it was, but upon further investigation found that she had learned how to shake her arms enough to rock the crib and make the noise.  She seemed pretty pleased with herself.

and forever more they will be

"Sisters, sisters 

There were never such devoted sisters,"

more snow fun

snow cones anyone?

brrrr

eating snow

eating more snow

playtime

She loves the exersaucer!

Sitting pretty

Yep, she finally decided to do it for real, and does a pretty good job too.  There is even some video for proof.  She has also been saying dada sounds alot.  We think she is starting to figure out that it means that funny guy she likes so much.  She is sure a giggly girl lately too.  If you make random funny noises, or if Maria is being silly or playing peek-a-boo for her, she will laugh and laugh.