28 Weeks Down... 12 To Go

3 months to go... and we still haven't begun getting ready for this baby. With the holidays and a trip to Utah in a month, the date will draw quickly near. We better get movin' on that nursery!

I have no strong feelings as to whether it's a boy or a girl. So, I would love your help. I've set up a poll at the side of the blog for you to state your opinion... chico or chica?

To argue in favor of a girl - this pregnancy has in most respects been very similar to my last one. I've felt mostly the same (a little more sick, but not much), and I've only been a little more tired (but I'm chasing around a 1.5 year old). Also, the ol' Chinese calendar trick emphatically states it's a girl.

On the other hand, you might say boy because this baby's heartbeat is slow (last time in the 130s) and I'm carrying lower than last time (but hey, I'm a little more stretched out this time). Plus, this baby is much more active than Sophie was in my tummy.

So, get to voting - let me hear what you think! Maybe we'll even paint the nursery accordingly! (Okay, probably not.)

Daddy's Home

Every night the same - what a homecoming!

I'd Say She's Preparing Quite Nicely...

Our Little Wookie

You've all heard of Chewbacca (for those of you who aren't Star Wars nerds like my hubby, Chewbacca's "people" are the Wookies). Do your best to recall what he sounds like.

May I introduce Sophie the Wookie. Oh, her Daddy is so proud.

Humble Pie

**CAUTION: You are about to get a small amount of insight into a daily struggle for me. If reading about other people's mental issues makes you squeamish, turn back now.

Last week I sat in my Tuesday morning women's Bible study at church and listened to a friend talk about weakness. She delivered a heartfelt discussion of how we need to be thanking God for our weaknesses, because through them we grow and learn how to rely on God's power. I returned home that day excited about the thoughts she shared and spent the remainder of the week thanking God for my own shortcomings and the lessons learned as a result.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I was with a patient, and I told them something that was incorrect. Although the patient's family questioned me, it wasn't until I left the patient that I realized my mistake. Thankfully it wasn't one that could cause harm or any setbacks in therapy; it actually was an insignificant mistake. However, since the family questioned me about it, it is obvious to me that God is demanding me to apologize to them and admit my error. For my big-ol'-ugly pride, this will not be an easy accomplishment.

You see, Satan gets into my head and tells me that I'm better than other people because I have a Master's Degree. He tells me that I worked hard to get where I am and people should listen to me. And then God is so good, so merciful, so beautiful to remind me that I am nothing without Him. He gently whispers in my ear that my education was a simple gift, and nothing more; a tool from the Lord so that I can help His loved ones. He allows me a glimpse of what could be if I choose to misuse the love and grace He has freely given to me.

So for my generous helping of humble pie, I am thankful. Please, Lord, remind me that each person I meet is just as precious to you as the next. Give me your eyes to see those around me. Remind me that only through you am I strong.

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 12:10

On Momma's Day Out, All Fashion Rules Are Obviously Null and Void

And yes, he unfortunately took her out in public like this.

Picture Pages

I tried to tell you how much she loves books...

Happy girl:

Just chillin' - probably one of our last days to enjoy the zoo:

Sophie loves her hat from Great-Aunt Brenda:

This huge T-shirt is so comfy for play/nap time. She looks so old in it, too!

Little Ears Update

Yesterday Sophie had another appointment with Miss Dena, her audiologist. PRAISE GOD that all of her results remain consistent with what they have always been. This is such wonderful news, mainly because Sophie's hearing loss isn't getting worse! Since we have no family history of hearing loss at birth, and we don't know what caused Sophie's loss, there was no way to anticipate what it meant in the future for her. A year-and-a-half of extremely consistent results is an amazing blessing!

I'll try to explain exactly what kind of hearing loss Sophie has. The picture below is of what's called a "speech banana" (you can see the letters on the graph - the speech sounds - fall in a rough banana-like shape... hence, the name "banana").

What this diagram is showing is where different sounds typically occur in our range of hearing. Sounds have high or low frequencies (the numbers listed across the top). Each frequency of sound can be delivered at a different level of decibels (the numbers listed along the left side) - this is how loud or soft that sound is.

As an example: if you look near the middle of the graph there's a piano. The graph shows that the piano is found at around 1,000 Hz (the frequency), but is delivered to our ears at about 80 decibels (dB) on average (the loudness).

When a child has hearing loss, the main concern is to make sure they develop their speech and language normally (because, of course, we learn those things by hearing them!). Sophie's hearing loss is categorized as borderline mild hearing loss. In both ears, Sophie hears all sounds at around the 20-25 dB range. I shaded this in red so you can see where it falls on the graph.

So, if you looks closely, most of the sounds of speech fall below where Sophie's loss is, and she should be able to hear them just fine. There are a few sounds, though, that fall right around the area of her loss, such as the "f, s, th, p" sounds. These sounds are typically not developed until a child is in elementary school, so we'll just keep watching and waiting to see if she acquires them on her own or needs some help.

In the meantime, there is a speech therapist coming to see Sophie about every 3 months to help me make sure that Soph continues to develop right where she should be for her age. So far, she always says Sophers is doing great. She asked me to keep a list of the words Sophie says, and it keeps expanding all the time! Of course, she doesn't say the words perfectly (many of them most people probably wouldn't recognize), but I was adding to her list today and realized that she has over 30 words that she uses! One of my current favorites is, "Amen," which sounds like "ah-neh." She loves to chime in at the end of prayers with this one (and sometimes in the middle if we're taking too long).

Our incredible God can take any situation and make it beautiful, and that is precisely what he's doing with our Sophie!

Halloween Sneak-A-Peek

Friday night brought our Family Fall Festival at church. All the kids dress up in costumes for it. If you know me and Ben, you know that an event such as this means we will inevitably don a costume as well. So, many of you have been asking what Sophie (and subsequently her mom and dad) was going to be for Halloween.

Therefore, may I introduce to you....

The Flinstones 2008!

Litte Miss Pebbles:


Sophie/Pebbles had a little friend from church who we convinced to be Bam Bam! We couldn't get a great picture of the two of them, but they were so cute!

"Fred" attempted, in all his assumed manliness, to hold the two kiddos on his shoulders. Obviously he was no match for Bam Bam's extraordinary strength.


There were lots of games for the kids to play.

Sophie, however, found her greatest entertainment from the cones that separated one game from another.

And this wonderful lady below is Miss Andrea. Andrea is a dear friend who generously made our Pebbles shirt and adorable bone-bow. She is also the one-and-the-same Andrea who makes most of Sophie's hairbows. I am trying to convince her to go into business.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE FLINSTONE/TYSONS!

California Dreamin'

You can't help but hum a few "Beach Boys" tunes when you experience the gorgeous weather of San Diego before returning to the crisp, autumn weather of Kansas.

On Saturday in San Diego, we all took a trip to Coronado Island. It was the most beautiful beach I have been to in the United States (and I've been to a few). The sand was extremely fine and the water was a brilliant blue. Not to mention the high 70s- low 80s temperature... absolutely perfect!

Some of you might recall that Sophie and I went to the beach in Maryland with my parents this summer. We had a great time there, as well, but this time I was so glad for Sophie because she had her DaDa to play with. He's just much better at playing than Momma is!

The water was cold, so I didn't put Soph in her suit. I should've known better, though. It only took about 5 minutes for her shorts to get wet and she spent the rest of the time in her shirt and diaper!

Here is a plethora of pictures!

Sophie LOVED the sand! Even when her DaDa buried her in it, she just sat there and played as happy as can be:

Watching the birds with grandma:

Again, playing with DaDa:

Sisters!

The original Eroh kids (plus Sophie):

Our little fam:

I absolutely LOVE these last two pictures of Sophie and Ben. Watching those two together is the most amazing feeling in the world.

Our flight home on Sunday was quite delayed. We were supposed to take off from the San Diego airport at 6:20 a.m. Instead, we found ourselves finally leaving the ground at around 4 p.m. SO, that made for quite the long day in the airport. God was so good to us during that time! All of us stayed calm and patient, and Sophie was fantastic the whole day. She loved saying hi to all the people around us and was a hilarious little show-off. Even though she only took 2 small 25-minutes naps all day, she was happy and fun.

Here she is playing with a little girl in the airport who had some great stuffed animals.

And, of course, tuckered out!!

Needless to say, she slept very well that night after we finally made it back to Wichita at 10:00 p.m.