The fastest year

Luis said it never slows down again.

Sorry for a delay since the last post. May is a crazy month for people in youth minstry. Loads of plans and such to prepare for graduations and summer.

Simon is awesome. It's hard to believe a month and a half have past since he was born.
He's outgrowing clothes. He's been in the church nursery for the last two Sundays. While we trust the people in the nursery and our church, it's a weird feeling to hand your baby over to someone else for a while.

He's smiling now. We have a good time playing games together. I make strange noises and faces and he tries to imitate me, then we laugh together and then he poops sometime shortly after. Babies always poop. Everybody poops. I wonder if we'll still poop when we get to heaven. Hahah I can't believe I'm writing about poop. Guess that's what happens when you deal with a baby for too long.

Ok ok... here's what you really came for:

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! This picture is from the Huntington Beach Pier after the Sunrise Service.
We hope you have a great day celebrating the risen Christ.
The idea of the Father sending His Son to die for us has new meaning this year. Amazing.

Well... Clearly this picutre doesn't show it, and I can't believe I only took one picture that day (we have 508 pictures already and he's only 29 days old) but Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for dinner for an early Easter since they're heading to New York. We went to El Torito Grill, where they make the best fresh tortillas, and the second best guacamole. Simon liked to watch the tortillas spin around on the cooker. He slept well.. like a baby, the whole time.

3 weeks old

Time is strange. Sometimes it seems to move so slowly and other times it seems to move too quickly. With babies I think it seems to do both. It seems like ages ago that we were in the hospital waiting, wondering what he would look like (and what we would finally name him), and yet at the same time it seems to be moving all too fast.

Simon is 3 weeks old now.
He's doing great. Growing like crazy. He's changed so much and so fast. (I'm not sure if its as noticeable to others)

Personally I'm not sure who he'll end up looking like more still, but it's clear that he got his eating habits from Dad. Pretty much wants to eat every waking moment of his life.

He's getting stronger, making the funniest faces, making bizarre sounds (from both ends) and settling into a schedule a little bit more.

Back to sleep now. I'll drop some pictures tomorrow.

April 4, 2006

Dependent

If you feel so inclined we would love your prayer for Simon.
He's good, strong, healthy, but could use prayer.
This guide was sent my way. It's pretty helpful.

Pray that:

1. he come to know Christ early in life.

2. he will develop a hatred for sin. Psalms 97:10

3. he will be caught when guilty. Psalms 119:71

4. he will be protected from evil in each area of their lives: spiritual, emotional and physical. John 17:15

5. he will have a responsible attitude in all interpersonal relationships.

6. he will respect authority. Romans 13:1

7. he will desire right friends and be protected from wrong friends. Proverbs 1:10-15

8. he will be kept from the wrong mate and be saved for the right mate in marriage.

9. he and those they will marry be kept pure until marriage.

10. he will actively resist Satan in all circumstances. James 4:7

11. he will be single-hearted, willing to be sold out to Jesus Christ! Romans 12: 1-2

12. he will be hedged in so they cannot find their way to wrong people or wrong places.

The Teepee

Grandma sent these as a gift.
We laughed pretty hard when they arrived.
They actually work pretty sweet. No more sneak attacks.

Picture Pages, Picture Pages Come and get your..

It's late, but I made it

Hehe 10:45 pm, but I kept my word with an update today. And technically didn't wait til the "eleventh hour" :]

So, Simon is doing great. The reality of him being his own person sunk in today. Just the idea that he has his own personality, his own thoughts, that he's someone that didn't exist a short while back. It's exciting to think about what he'll be like. I don't think that either Amy or I have these ideas of "he'll be a great athlete, or musician, or doctor or anything". We're just interested to see who he becomes.

He was so alert and awake for a portion of the day. Amy and I were laying on the bed reading books and Simon was laying between us just looking back and forth. I think he was trying to read my book, but I wouldn't let him because Harry Potter has "sorcery" and "magic" and girls named "Hermoine" in it. But as I said he was alert and awake, so I put down the book and played with him for about an hour. Just like grabbing my fingers and making funny faces and stuff (I figured Hockey might be too advanced for him at the moment). Clearly the best hour of my week though. He's incredible.

He poops, eats, and sleeps. Other than that we took him out for his first trip (outside of hospitals). We took him to Target. Hah. Nothing but the good life for my boy. Adventure awaits at your friendly neighborhood Target.

Last few days were mostly this:














With an occasional this:

Soon

Update tomorrow with more pictures. Very.. Sleepy..

As promised..

Click >>HERE<< to see video. If you save it to your drive it will run better in the future.

pwnd!

Simon peed on me. On purpose too. Tricky lil' fella.

I was changing his diaper thinking the gun was unloaded since he just wet his diaper. Babies don't like getting their diapers changed. As I'm changing him, I'm trying to comfort him. I wipe him down, and I wrap him in a little blanket so that he's not cold (and so that he's covered so he can't pee on me). As I'm throwing away his diaper, he's laying on the changing table, I have my hand on him at arms length (2 to 3 feet away), he grabs his blanket, pulls it up to uncover himself, and BOOM! pees all over me. Crazy little sniper.

Much Love

Thanks to everyone for being so supportive of us during this time. The abundance of love through support, meals, phone calls, flowers, gifts has been wonderful. We really appreciate all of it. You mean so much to us.

Extremely Excited and Exceedingly Exhausted

A little alliteration for you.
Simon is doing great. Feeding well. Burping well. Pooping lots.
Amy is great. Very tired, but wonderful still. Patient, graceful, loving, joyful. Typical Amy.
I'm overjoyed.

Here's some new pictures for you.



































































I'll drop a video on here before the sun sets tomorrow. (well, before it sets in Cali.)

The Family

Jaundice Report

Yay! His Bilirubin count is going down.
The doctor said we can take him off of the lights today.
Which is great because we can finally hold and cuddle him more :)
And he no longer looks like he should be in the movie Tron.

There's no place like home.

We made it.
The doctor sent us home today, and let Simon come with us.




















Simon has Jaundice, and they put him under phototherapy.
So there was a chance that he would have to stay at the hospital after we were released.
Fortunately, they released him with us. They sent some lights with us to continue his treatment.
We have an appointment tomorrow to test him again.
Meanwhile, he looks like a glowworm.

More Pictures

This one goes to 11

Simon James Leonhardt
Born March 17, 2006 at 6:25 am
Weighs 9 lbs, 4 oz.
20 and 3/4 inches long
Brown hair

Amy Jean rules the school

19 hours of labor.
9 lbs 4 oz baby.
My wife is a champ.

9pm. No baby yet.
Long day today. No baby in sight.
Pray for us, we're a little discouraged. Thanks.

A slight delay today. We were suppose to go in at 7am, but they had some emergencies come up and pushed us back a bit. They just called us now and told us to come in at 11a. We'd appreciate your prayers.

We just found out we're scheduled to induce tomorrow morning!
Thursday, March 16.
We're very excited. Amy is a little bit nervous, but probably doesn't want me to tell you that. She's a champ.
Please pray for us. We'll definitely have some pics up soon.