David's Baby Dedication Trip . . .

This weekend was a trip to Columbus for me to attend the baby dedication for our little guy, David. I drove over on Friday night right after work. The dedication service was at the 5 o'clock worship service at Heritage Christian Church , so I had time on Saturday to spend a little time with the family.

Katy and I did a short trip to Tim Horton's for a donut on Saturday morning. Then we went down on Lane Avenue to Opa's very favorite place on the planet, Half Price Books! It is never too soon to start cultivating a love of books, and the love of donuts with sprinkles comes early without any cultivation!

Katy enjoyed her donut; and she named every color of sprinkle on that donut! I never paid attention to how many different colors there are in the standard mixture. Leave it to a 2-1/2 year old to educate you on this type of thing. I drank a cup of coffee and ate a cinnamon-raisin bagel while Katy named colors and sipped her milk. Then we went off to the kids' corner at Half Price. There were lots of books, and Katy picked two and I picked two as well. Hers were about Cookie Monster and another about rainy-day projects that had some neat pipe cleaners and things to complete projects in the package with it. I picked a kid's book about Mozart for Katy and a crossword puzzle book for myself. It was a FUN trip.

David's latest new skill is that he can now climb up the stairs. And he is so proud of himself when he does this. You can tell in the picture here that he is king of the mountain when he gets to the top.

He is just the cutest little boy on the planet when he does this . . . well, actually he's that cute all the time. But he is still our smilin' darlin'! How could you help but love that face and kiss those cheeks?

The baby dedication was really great, and the minister, Jim Zippay, talked a lot about taking your worship beyond just singing and making it count for the poor and hurting people around us. He particularly hit a nerve with me when he talked about an organization called Rahab's Hideaway that assists women in escaping from white slavery. Ever since I read The Natasha's, I have been really passionate that I need to somehow make an impact in helping these women. I plan to check out this web site . . . . More on that later.

I'm really proud of the kids, and it is wonderful to see this great family thriving and growing. After the service, we picked up lasagna on the way home. We had a great dinner with family!

I got to see Melanie for a little while. She is heading off to Florida next weekend for her training at Great Commission Ministries. I am so proud of her for taking on this ministry position. Ever since she was 7 or 8 years old, she has been my little women's advocate. Her first career choice in elementary school was to be the first woman president of the United States. (There's still time on this dream, by the way!) From that time forward, she has been learning what it means to help young women get the respect they deserve . . . from themselves as well as from other people. She is the perfect person to demonstrate what it means to be a young, single woman on a college campus who is lovable and worthy of respect. I know she will be a great supporter of the students on Ohio State campus. Drive safely, Melanie! I love you!

This morning, I got up and started for Pittsburgh about 9:30 because we had symphony tickets at 2:30 to hear Gabriela Montero playing Rhapsody in Blue with the orchestra. It was the most lyrical, amazing performance of this piece that I have ever heard. It was wonderful! As an encore, Gabriela played an improvisation on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that was just as amazing. And before the second half of the concert, she played a John Williams arrangement of "Simple Gifts" that she performed for the inauguration last Tuesday. Anyway . . . it was a wonderful concert. I was really glad I came home early anyway, because it was snowing by the time we got downtown at 1:30 p.m.; and by the time we came home at 4:30 p.m., it was kind of slippery.

Hey, Pam! I hear that Danny is scheduled for entry on Wednesday! I am thinking about you this week and can't wait to hear that you and your family are doing well.