Our Vain Child

Jovi is going through a stage in which she whines a lot more than she used to when she doesn’t get her way. She wants her mama most of the time, and it’s been harder to keep her happy and entertained. Her fussiness is partly due to her going through the weaning process….and partly due to the fact that she’s a girl. I recently discovered that she loves watching these videos of herself, so I’m posting them in order to keep her occupied. Every time she watches one, she gives me her sign for “more.” Jill is working tomorrow, so I may find myself sitting at the computer with our vain little girl.

She's learning her body parts but does much better when there is no camera pointed at her.

She's also learned a few animal sounds. The cow sound is getting pretty close to "moo." The sheep clears its throat rather than saying "ba ba." The lion used to growl, but now the lion just says "mama."

Having fun with her favorite person.

Learning to Walk

Sorry for posting so rarely. We've been gone for almost half of June and had VBS another week. I'll try to keep up a little more often the second half of the summer.

Jovi is learning to walk as you can see in the video. She's still too much of a chicken to venture off on her own. She's only brave enough to try if someone is waiting for her to catch her.

She continues to be a tiny little thing. At her last doctor's appointment (12 and 1/2 months) she weighed in at 15.3 pounts.

1st Birthday

It's hard to believe that Jovi is one year old. We had a little party for her with a few friends over, and Jill made this sweet duck birthday cake.

First Taste

After the Party

Waving goodbye to her friends.

Trying on the new clothes.

Dance, Dance, Dance

On Jill’s birthday, my brother got her the largest birthday card I’ve ever seen. When you open it, it plays the “Peanuts” theme song. We’ve gotten more use out of this birthday card than any card in the history of greeting cards. It sits under Jovi’s crib, and she likes to get it out every week and have a dance party.

I Win

I can turn just about anything into a competition. Not long after Jovi was born, I would always tell her, “Say Dada.” Of course, Jill would always tell her, “Say Mama.” While I certainly know that Jovi love her Mom more than her Dad, I at least won the battle for the first word.

The Passion of Sophie

I keep a list of movies on my fridge so that when I go to rent one, I don’t spend 30 minutes at the movie store trying to figure out what to get. I update my list every few months, normally based on reviews. I don’t always like the movies that the critics like, but if the majority of critics hate a movie, I find that it’s a fairly good indication that it won’t be worth my time. So, over the last month or so I’ve rented Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. Both were pretty good, but I didn’t love either of them. I didn't find either of them inspiring, and in a few months I will have forgotten much about them.

The best movie I’ve seen in a long time was one that has been buried on my movie list for several years. It’s a German film entitled “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days.” I’ve been thinking about it over and over again since I saw it a few days ago. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that it’s a very simple movie (not action packed at all). It is inherently Christian without being preachy, and it is deeply moving. I want to write a bunch more, but I hate spoiling movies. Two thumbs way up!

American Idol

I try to keep politics out of the pulpit and for the most part out of my blog, but tonight I just can't resist. I came home from the church this evening and flipped on the old "boob-tube," and there was President Obama answering questions at a prime time news conference. The caption at the bottom of the screen read "First 100 days," and I thought is this his 100th day in office or the 100th time he's holding a prime time press conference? I mean, he's on the TV more than Ryan Seacrest, but I'm sure he doesn't have much else to do being the leader of the free world and all.

So, I looked it up and figured that this is his 4th prime time speech since taking office (3 press conferences and the state of the union address). Assuming this rate continues and that he wins re-election in 2012, we only have 113 more prime time President Obama specials to go!

Rational Faith

You’ll have to excuse my failure to post over the past month. It’s been busy with Holy Week, Easter, and family visiting. I’m also realizing how much less time I’ve had this year compared to last year, before Jovi was born. That darn kid sucks up much of our free time.

Anyway, I still have found time to read (perhaps this is because I’m a pastor and really only work one day a week….haha), and one of the best books I’ve read in a long time is Timothy Keller’s “The Reason for God.” If you are a person who questions whether or not Christianity is true or if you deal with people who are skeptical of Christianity, I highly recommend this book.

Keller is a pastor in New York City, and his book was written from the perspective of the many conversations he has had with skeptical New Yorkers about faith. While Keller’s primary role is as pastor, he is extremely well versed in philosophy. What is great about his book is not the originality of his ideas and arguments. I’ve come across all of his arguments in other books of philosophy or theology. But, what is great is how logical and accessible his book is. He covers the most common arguments that skeptics use to attack the Christian faith, and responds to those arguments with great precision and clarity. He brings together some of the best arguments Christian thinkers have to offer (the book is well documented, repeatedly quoting C.S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, Soren Kierkegaard, and a wide variety of authors from across the spectrum), and he does it in a way that I think most serious-minded laypeople could understand. This is an excellent introduction to apologetics and would be the first book off my shelf that I would give to skeptic of the Christian faith.