The Sunflowers.

The sunflower pictures were taken with my iPhone camera.  Not too shabby for a two year old 3G.

Sunflowers in our backyard.

No harems here.

This is a pithy post about marriage and fidelity.  But I think the first comment is even better.

Can you identify what happens when you run into a parked car?

Atheist know the most about religion...

This link was sent to me today.  It's interesting that Mormons (cultist) and Atheists (cultists of their own stripe) were two of the top three when it came to knowledge about religion.  It makes me wonder... If you don't believe in God, why would one care to know any of the answers about God?  Maybe cause they were raised as believers and questioned it?  Or maybe because they need to know more about religion to confirm their own prejudices/beliefs?

All that aside, answering atheists (who know many of the pat answers that Christians give) was one of the major thrusts of "Collision" the documentary that follows the debates between my pastor Doug Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, the world renowned atheist, journalist, and author.  Read the "Receptioin" section in the wikipedia page by clicking here.

Great advice for us married types...

Great advice on video to married couples from my pastor and the pastor of our sister church here in town.  Funny at points and wise overall.  Short accounts kept between husband and wife and dad's apologizing.

Signe, Zane, Greta

Happy Birthday Zane!

Zane's first birthday.

Zane turns 1 year old today.  He's been a great joy to Abby and I, as well as Signe and Gunnar.  As he comes out of his infancy and into being a toddler, he is revealing more and more of himself to us.  Some Zane characteristics and points-of-interest are as follows:

• Zane points at most everything and follows it up with baby-babble that sounds like "What's that?"   He particularly likes to point at family pictures and light fixtures.
• Zane follows mommy everywhere during the day and when daddy is home, Zane follows him.  (Admittedly, mommy sometimes gets a little tired of Zane's tender tenacity to tether himself to a parent)
• Zane takes a licking and keeps on ticking.  He is constantly serving as a speed bump to Gunnar.  Older brother likes to knock him down when he is standing or walking, or lay on him when he is crawling.  Despite being bowled over on a regular basis, this almost never upsets Zane to point of crying.  While reprimanding Gunnar for being abusive, Zane will simply look back and forth from Gunnar to parent with a blank look on his face as if to say, "Hey, no problem.  I'm tough enough."  I think he is training himself to play offensive tackle.
• Zane loves Tikki-dog or rather Tikki loves Zane.  Describing their relationship as symbiotic or parasitic, parasitic probably wins the day.  Every meal finds Zane looking to drop bits of food to the dog, while Tikki has her nose in Zane's lap, looking for further treats.  However, when Zane toddles/crawls/waddles/moseys his way back to Tikki's den to pet her, Tikki gives a low growl, hoping for a parent to rescue her from this low-slung drooling invader.  Tikki is never too happy to indulge the curiosity of small human beings.
• Zane likes to scream for one of two things.  One, to fill the void of relative silence in church.  Two, if the food is not forthcoming and he is in his chair, ready to feed himself and Tikki.  Neither are considered acceptable behaviors by his parents, but one is definitely more embarrassing than two and requires lots of pacing in the back of the church with a baby boy who is now happily pointing at light fixtures, wall banners, and basketball hoops.   
• Zane is drawn to Tikki's water bowl like a moth to a porch light.  No matter how many times we have flicked Zane's hand and told him "No touch." in a very firm voice, Zane still feels the need to either grab Tikki's water bowl or stick his hand in the water bowl.  When caught in the almost-act, and told "No touch!" by a parent who is tired of cleaning up pools of water on the kitchen floor, one can see the terrible crux of decision when faced with temptation crossing the tubby tots face.  He stops, he ponders, he watches.  Sometimes he wins over his temptation, sometimes he loses.  Losing often involved a red hand, wet floor, and a crying baby boy.  (However, if mommy is doing the hand-flicking, then the result is a red hand, wet floor, and baby boy with a curious look on his face often accompanied by an amused smile.  Did I already mention he can take a hit?)
• Zane is NOT a napper, much like Signe.  Whereas Gunnar can easily take a three hour nap in the afternoon without much protest, Zane has three approaches to naps.  1.  howls, sleeps for 20 minutes, and then howls again until either a parent removes him from his incarceration or a sibling joins him in his pack-n-play jail cell. 2.  He doesn't.  3.  He naps when neither his mommy or daddy can do so.  This involves napping in places like the car, the baby backpack, or while being carried in the last few minutes of church (Thus making the partaking in the bread and wine a bit more of an adventure.) These three approaches to napping has mommy running a little ragged these days and considering the more positive aspects of chloroform, either administered in small doses to small individuals sporting runny noses or in larger doses for the owner of a larger nose who is in desperate need of a nap.  But these approaches to napping also tell us that Zane loves to be involved and around people.  Yet another Holloway who will probably never be a shy, retiring violet.  Maybe more of a brassy, adventurous fullback.

Zane is 1.  We love him and find great joy in him.  He is our B-Zay.  Thank you God for giving us this life.  And don't worry Gunnar.  He will be as big as you someday.  Knocking him down may prove to be a bit more difficult very soon.

Zane's first Birthday card

Zane's first birthday is in two days. Here's his very first birthday card.

Signe at the top of the ferris wheel.

Signe n Gunnar at the fair.

B-Zay at the fair.

Gunnar at the fair.

Mike Singletary is intense.

http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2010/09/video-mike-singletary-interview-dad-gum-yahoo-commercial/

Click on the link to find an old-school coach and his approach to football and life.  If you don't give two figs about football, watch and listen to this video in the linked article with an ear towards hearing what is underneath the conversation about football.  His personality and non-tolerance of BS really comes across.

On a side note, Coach Singletary is a Christian who wears a cross in a place of prominence.  There have been more than a few who didn't think he would last long in San Francisco because of this.

Greta Sentz and Signe Holloway

Cousins

Nap time.

I came home from work to find a 3 year old had taken over my bed. Think I'll join him.

"Signe... are you sure you're sick?"

Tuesday morning before school...

"Mom, I'm sick."

"Well, you don't feel sick Signe."

Signe comes home sick from school after only an hour, sits on the couch for an hour, then proceeds to play outside for the rest of the day with the neighbor kids.

Wednesday morning at school...

"Mrs. Sawyer, may I use the bathroom?"

"Yes, Signe..."

Signe walks out door of kindergarten class, which opens into auditorium where HS music class is meeting.

Signe procedes to puke on floor.

A slighty concerned high schooler goes to the office and informs the school secretary that a kindergartner is puking on the floor.

...

"Nick, this is Sandy Hoeft, school secretary at Logos..."

"Did Signe throw up?"

"Yes, she puked on the floor outside the kindergarten classroom..."

"I'll come pick her up right away."

Thus ends another episode of the "Holloway Fam".

B-Zay, blur, bucket.

B-Zay n blur

Gunnar

Gunnar, Signe, n Dad

A Log on the Blog

"Wow Gunnar, that's huge!"

"Dad, come see what Gunnar did!"

Dad enters, sees Gunnar sitting with proud smile.

"I want mommy to see!"

Mom enters, Gunnar repeats proud smile.

Mom and Dad leave. Crying is heard.

"Dad! Signe flushed it!"

"Signe, let Gunnar flush his own."

Thus ends another exciting episode of "Holloway Fam"

Two slices of kid pizza with side of B-Zay

The religion of secularism is dying.

Suppose that an American daisy-cutter bomb had been dropped on Mecca, and blew up their sacred rock. Suppose further that through a series of circumstances, a Southern Baptist gentleman proposed building a Christian chapel on the lip of that crater. We would be justified in suppposing this man to be any number of things, but one of the things he emphatically would not be is a moderate...  (click here to read the rest of the blog post.  This is a GOOD one.)

Gunnar eating with the big folks.