God and Turtles

Matthew is learning all kinds of new words. A number of months ago, whenever we would watch his animal videos and giraffes would come on, I would say "juh-juh" to try to get him to be able to say the "j" sound. After weeks of this, he started identifying every giraffe he saw as "juh-juh." Pretty cool. Lately, the new word has been "turtle." Looking through one of his books I would point to the turtle and say "turtle." After a couple days at this he started saying "tuhtoo." He now says it all the time and can identify them. Karina and I felt so excited and proud of him. It was fun.
A couple of days later Karina and I were talking and she had a thought about how we relate to God. She was thinking about things she had been learning, and how sometimes when something new about the Christian life strikes her, it can be easy to start to be kind of impressed with herself. I had trouble relating to this (I'm kidding). But I think she is right. Sometimes we start to really get something, and we get excited, and then we begin to think that we're pretty smart to start grasping this concept. Karina's observation was that when we start to understand something new from God's word, it is not that he is unimpressed.

He is thrilled with us and proud of us.

But he is not thrilled with us because we are geniuses. He is thrilled with us because, after he has for days, weeks, or years been saying to us through his word "turtle," and showing us pictures of turtles, we are finally looking up at him and saying, "tuhtoo."
Pretty humbling, but I think this is such an accurate way of looking at how we grow. It is exciting, and we should not hide our excitement, but it would be funny for a little kid to start thinking he is really something because he can say "tuhtoo." The best reaction might be to be thankful to the one teaching him, and to go and look for more help and growth.
Enjoy the picture of Matthew with his Tuhtoo.

Two Down, One to Go

In December, I saw my all-time favorite band: U2. I saw them with my best friend Dave (see Uncle Fuzzy below). In two months Dave and I are going to see my second favorite band of all time: Toad the Wet Sprocket (anyone remember them?). Last night, though, I saw my third favorite all-time band: Counting Crows. It was great!
For those of you who are fans of Adam and the gang, I will attach the set list below. While they did not play as long as I would have liked, they played almost all of my favorites. The reason they did not play too long is because they shared the time with the Goo Goo Dolls. They were great also, but they let their bass player sing a couple of songs at the concert. I don't know what else to say but that he sounds like he has had a major throat injury. If he was to show up for American Idol try-outs I think Simon would tell him, "You sound as if you have smoked 8 packs a day and then sucked helium on top of that" (you must imagine that said with a british accent). Once he started singing, many of us who did not get up for a drink covered our ears and laughed. Wow! Maybe that is what we sound like when we try to assert ourselves in the body of Christ in an area in which we are not gifted. Maybe. Hmm.
Anyway, my favorite performances from the Countring Crows were A Long December and Holiday in Spain. I especially loved A Long December when Adam sings, "It's been so long since I've seen the ocean. . .I guess I should." It made me long for the homeland (California).
Anyway, here is the set list for any of you fans:
Recovering the Satellites
Hard Candy
Mrs. Potter's Lullaby
Mr. Jones
Goodnight Elizabeth
Saint Robinson in His Cadillac Dream
Richard Manuel is Dead
High Life
Miami
Long December
Hanging Around
Holiday in Spain

Here are some recent pictures of us. This one is out at Oxbow Park. 

Karina caught this classic moment. 

Here is Matthew with our friend Jim Seymour at Jim's birthday party. Jim is a cop, so Matthew brought his police car. 

With Jim's help, getting happily surrounded by balloons. 

Filling his Mama's Big Shoes 

Matthew fist-bumping his Uncle Fuzzy