Once again, all my good thoughts come to me just after the opportunity to share them has passed. Tonight I had another experience similar to the one earlier this summer in a discussion among Christians on the topic of favoritism in the church toward wealthy people. I won't share the details leading up to this partly because I want to save it for my Sunday School lesson and partly not to be mean spirited. Basically, I was told that wealthy Christians shouldn't feel badly that they don't make an effort to befriend and associate with poorer Christians because "they feel comfortable with each other anyway" and "we like to be with people with whom we have more in common just like they do." We were discussing the passage in James chapter 2 where James is clearly telling us not to treat the rich guests in our congregation any differently than we do the poor. My original point was that we as "First Bapitist-ites" will "minister" to poor people and feel good about ourselves then go home and never want to associate with them socially.
I did speak up against this, saying it most definitely is possible to feel comfortable around people of different "classes" etc. But I wish I would have said what I believe the Scripture says: If you look at the external appearance of people it will be hard to find something in common. But as Christians, we have very much in common: Christ. I'm tired of hearing that "those people" don't want to be included in our circles and that "they" are perfectly happy in their own circles. Am I just being naive to think that it's possible to not let social class determine your friendships?

Bath Time Buddy

What kind of parent would I be if I didn't periodically post some bath tub updates? Hope has recently graduated from the baby tub to the regular bath tub. She has lots of fun in here. It's scary though, because she wants to crawl and stand up and has no fear of her face being in the water. This contraption protects her head from the faucet and will be a great way to get her hair all rinsed out when she's a little older. Right now, it's one of the most exciting things in Hope's life. She is fascinated!

And (I'm shedding a tear here) Hope has graduated to big girl jammies. They now have rubber non skid footies! We are no where near walking, but I guess other babies in 12 month jammies are walking.

Here's the pink hippo I mentioned in an earlier post that is one of her favorites. They are cute together. Both of them have just 2 bottom teeth.

Here's just another Happy Hope picture. There's a very loud squeal to accompany this wide grin!

This looks like we just took her picture when her eyes closed, but it's really a face she likes to make. It's much more cute in person.

Just a little Chelsea update: She came over to make flip flops which was a successful adventure for us. Also, Brian her brother recently discovered a talent in yard work. Woody paid him to help with the yard. We are praying he learns the value of hard work to earn money.

Happy Hope

These days I'm getting so many compliments about what a happy baby I have. It's wonderful. Here's a picture of one of those things that makes Hope so happy: dog books! Hope loves all books. She also LOVES dogs. We have this book about a dog. It doesn't get better than this: touch and feel, a button to press that makes noise and all about dogs.
Some other things Hope loves: sweet potatoes, mangos, Wal-Mart, balls, her sippy cup, eye glasses, the goat that Mr. Wilson sometimes brings to the softball games,cell phones, carpet fuzz, the pink hippo that is in her bath toy set and any noise you make with your mouth and tongue.

Woody's aunt Carol recently kept Hope for a few hours. She is an elementary school teacher and therefore has some credibility, I believe, to her statement that Hope is very smart. I'm beaming over that comment! Every mother is biased, but.... To celebrate, I thought I'd post Hope playing with what I think is a little higher level toy that she's just mastered. You actually have to hold the thing still while you press the big green thing and watch the little balls spin around. When they spin, Hope says "baa" which I'm sure is "See Mom, the balls go round and round when I push this!" She's also just gotten two teeth! If you look very closely, you can see them popping through. (bottom center.)

And here's Hope with her best buddy Daisy. This is also my non-traditional Janna Woodfall would be proud snap shot of the two of them.

Hope and I recently went to PetSmart to get Daisy a new toy. We also wanted to see all the other pets there. Hope saw kittens: loved those, birds: ehh, they're okay, fish: totally boring, big dogs, little dogs: loved those, and gerbils: totally terrified of them!

Here's Hope lovingly gazing at Daisy....

and Daisy lovingly gazing back. Daisy is great with her so far. When we go on walks, Daisy doesn't even know she's there, but Hope loves to watch Daisy run. In the back yard, Daisy has in the past had a bit of a jumping problem. Okay it's still really bad, but we're working on it. With Hope, she is not jumping. It's the craziest thing. She's super excited to see her, but has always known the limit. Aren't dogs smart? Does she sense that I'm a momma bear and she'd better watch out, is she a girl dog and have a sense about babies, is it that labs really are as good with kids as people say?...

Then a little family outing to watch the Maglinger men minus Woodrow play softball. Susanna is our full of life as usual.

Happy Independence Day!

The Maglinger family celebrated on Wednesday as the weather was supposed to be better that day than Saturday. I had a great time getting my little fire cracker all ready to celebrate. After I was finished, I had to ask Woody to help me watch her as I wasn't feeling very well. He decided to take the opportunity to teach her a few history lessons.... First, a brief reading of the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the Constitution...

Then some time learning the past Presidents and the order in which they served. Woody is sure Hope is locked in on Abe Lincoln in this picture. Probably thinks he resembles her Daddy a few months ago...See "the beard" post on this blog.

I think she got a little nervous her Dad was going to sign her up for the service!