The Moberg Family

Month: January 2012

  • Double Digits, Dude

    Double Digits, Dude

    Our son is officially in the double digits!! The big 1-0!! 10 MONTHS!!! The next time we’ll be able to say that will be when he is 10 years old, which feels like it’s going to happen in the blink of an eye. March 20, 2021 is practically next week!

    Well, big surprise—Elliott continues to be our absolute greatest delight. The other day I got to stay home with him all day by myself (unfortunately because I am sick, but that’s beside the point) and it amazes me still that I have never gotten tired of him…not even once in his 10 months of life. I have never had that moment, “I just a need a break from him!” In fact, I still hate leaving him…I still would rather be with him than do just about anything else.

    We simply adore him. I think I say that every time I write about him, but that’s the way it is…If you were a fly on our wall, those are the words you would hear coming out of our mouths. He is simply the best. He is simply the most wonderful. He is simply the greatest gift of a child.

    Elliott is happiest when he is moving. He’s really always been like that, but the desire to move has increased! He walks along everything and pulls himself up onto everything. He loves opening and closing cabinets and drawers. One of his favorite games is “The Chase Game.” He squeals with delight, trying to catch his breath while he laughs and crawls as fast as he can as I run after him and say, “I’m gonna get you!” He still loves “Peekaboo,” and any game where the object is to laugh and laugh and laugh…

    Here are some of Elliott’s favorites this month:

    Giving kisses.

    Oh my word, I wish I could put into words how wonderful it is when Elliott gives kisses. He opens his mouth as big as it can go, sticks his tongue out ever so slightly, and plants his open mouthed French kiss anywhere you’ll let him. He prefers the cheek and the mouth. And when he’s feeling especially affectionate, he will do it over and over and over again…Ahhh, it is my favorite.

    Clapping.

    He kind of looks like he's on the verge of crying here, but he's actually just really, really happy, ha!!

    He started clapping last month and now it is one of his favorite things to do. For some strange reason, he loves to clap when I am changing his diaper… ?? He literally does it every time I put him on the changing table. It is so hilarious, and I was telling Brian about it and told him we should video it because it’s so funny. Well, sure enough—something about having Brian in the room and the camera made him camera shy because he didn’t do it anything like he normally does, and we tried twice! I’ll put a video below of the best video we got, but I’m telling you, this doesn’t even come close to doing the cuteness justice.

    Whistling.

    What 9 ½ month old whistles? Brian Moberg’s son, that’s who. (Brian’s won whistling contests, you know!) Yes, you heard me correctly, Elliott is whistling. This whole month his favorite and most common face is the “o” face…you know, when you put your lips like a little tiny “o”…like when you want to whistle. Well one day, the whistle came out. I couldn’t believe it. And he now whistles an average of 2 or 3 times a day… Yep, you heard it here first, folks.

    Whistling Face as he goes into the Mexico Home Depot for the first time
    Super Excited Whistling Face as the nice Home Depot Lady hands him his very own balloon!

    Climbing out of his car seat.

    "Yes? May I help you?"

    As soon as I start to unbuckle him, he does his part to get out. It’s pretty darn cute. The lighting isn’t the best at the end of the video, but here’s a video of him climbing out:

    Food.

    We have finally had some success in the eating of solid foods this month…we’ve gotten him to take some Puffs (like little cereal pieces that dissolve in his mouth) and a few bites of a Mum-Mum (a dissolving rice cracker).

    Evidence

    And then one day…he finally decided to start feeding himself and, of course, I pulled out the camera after he did it once, hoping he’d do it again:

    "Are you REALLY getting this on camera, Mom?"
    "*sigh* Okay. I'll eat one by myself again so you can take a picture."
    "You know, these really aren't my favorites still…"
    "Ehh, you know…slimy, yet satisfying."

    Friends.

    Folks, this little buddy just loves people. I am constantly amazed that he is never afraid of new friends and more than that—he loves them instantly! As soon as we walk into the room with him, he waves at every person he sees…it is the cutest. Here are a few shots of some of his favorite same-sized friends and some of his favorite new friends!

    The first two are from Christmas time.

    Quinn! Quinn is Elliott's true Bosom Buddy. And they are less than 2 weeks apart!
    Cody! Cody's favorite way to play with Elliott was to sit on him…and Elliott didn't seem to mind at all, ha!
    Our new DTS friends

    To sum up, Elliott is the cutest 10 month old that ever existed. Still don’t believe me? Here are some pictures over the last month to prove it…

    Loving his Home Depot balloon!!
    "Helping" me by taking all of the dirty rags BACK OUT of the bin…
    Playing with Daddy's tool set from when HE was a boy…
    LOVE.
    I love how Elliott delights in life…
    Chewing on this disgusting, germ-infested apple leaf…
    …and loving it.
    Playing with his new alphabet train! Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Moberg!
    So pure.
    Playing the mirror game with Daddy…one of his favorites.
    This is his "polite smile."

    And, finally, my top four favorite pics from this month:

    So wonderful, he is.
    So kind…
    So filled with joy…
    All in all, he is perfect.

     

    We love you, sweet little love of ours. Happy double digits birthday, to you!!!!!

  • Livin’ La Vida en Mexico

    Here’s a little glimpse into our world here! We spend pretty much every day on the YWAM base so we thought we’d let you into our lives through some pictures :). The Defender Center, which is the main building on the YWAM base here, is where all of our meetings and meals are held. It is a beautiful, brand-new building.

    The Defender Center (a company called Defender donated the money for the building to be built…hence, the name)
    Not a bad view, eh? This is the view from the Defender Center
    Inside the Defender Center: the reception area and a cute little sitting area.
    Inside the Defender Center: The Coffee Shop!
    Inside the Defender Center: Not the best picture, but this is the main area where we have big meetings and eat all of our meals. It's hard to tell how big the room is, but it's quite large.

    Our Classmates:

    The beautiful women! Malene (from Norway), Chrystal, Angela, and Rayel (all from Minnesota)
    The manly men! Luis, Jonas (Mexico) and Josh (Canada)

    The fearless staff leading our DTS:

    Giezi (the leader of our school) and his lovely wife Amanda. Amanda is leading a different school right now, but I wanted to include her because I think she's pretty cool :). We LOVE this couple and can't wait to glean from them and get to know them better!
    Scott (WA), Josh (OK), Lora (CA) and Chrissy (Germany)! We are blessed to have such an amazing staff leading us!! We love them all!

    Fun Facts:

    * We live in a quiet housing community with a guard shack called San Marino. Our house is 1.5 miles (from front door to front door) from the YWAM base.

    * However, when we head home from the YWAM base, there is no exit for our housing complex so we have to go past our house and turn around at another exit. Thus, the drive home is 3.5 miles!

    * We have a little family of bunnies living in our neighborhood :).

    * We are 24.3 km (which is 14.6 miles for all you Americans out there) from the border crossing. Now that we have our fast pass to get across into the U.S., our average wait to cross will be more like 15 minutes instead of 2 plus hours. With this pass, crossing the border into the U.S. will be a similar length drive as the drive from Tacoma to Seattle…usually about 45-60 minutes.

    * However, crossing BACK into Mexico goes MUCH quicker because they are much less picky about who enters their country. 🙂 It takes about 25 minutes to get from the YWAM offices in National City to our house, and we usually don’t even get stopped at the border!

    * The food on the YWAM base is actually pretty darn good! (I’m soooo thankful!!) The cook is a great guy named Thomas who is from Colorado (holla!), went to culinary school, and decided to serve the YWAM base rather than work in some fancy restaurant!

    * There is a Starbucks (Susanne is happy) and a Costco (Brian is happy) north of us in Tijuana, which is about 20 minutes away.

    * There is a little city called Rosarito (a few minutes south of us) which is where we will likely do most of our grocery shopping. There is also a Walmart, an Applebees, and a Burger King in Rosarito.

    * They have TONS of little taco stands everywhere with real, legit Mexican tacos (I would hope so!). You order as much food as you want, eat it, go back for more food, and then pay when you’re all through. But there is no bill! They just trust everyone to be honest and tell them what they ate. I think that’s totally crazy!!

    * If there’s one reason to come visit us, it’s to go to the movie theaters–they are SO CHEAP here!! We haven’t been yet, but we’ve heard that they’re quite nice and only $3!

    * In our old house in Tacoma, we saw the sun rise every morning over the Puget Sound. In our new home, we watch the sun set every evening over the Pacific Ocean!

    * It is COLD here! Do not be deceived by the whole “Mexico-is-hot” facade!! I wear sweaters, my Uggs, and scarves every day!! We are right on the ocean, and so I think the breeze carries in the cool air from the water. During these winter months, it is for sure CHILLY!!

    * We have plenty of room for YOU if you’d like to come visit! You will always have a place to stay :).

  • Elliott’s First Christmas!

    Elliott’s First Christmas!

    DISCLAIMER! I wrote this post the day after Christmas, and then was without internet to upload the photos! So, it’s late…but better late than never :). Enjoy!

    I remember last Christmas so vividly…not the presents, not the people, not the events…no, all of my thoughts were consumed with the idea that next Christmas we would have Elliott with us…not inside my womb, but here with us. He would be 9 months old and he would wear Christmas jammies and he would destroy the wrapping paper we used to cover up his very first Christmas gifts…he would smile at us and wave at us and snuggle with us. He would dance to jingle bells in our arms and he would follow along as we read, “That’s Not My Reindeer” to him. We would get to celebrate this beautiful time of the year with him instead of waiting for him…

    And I can’t even count the amount of times that tears have flooded my eyes this Christmas season as I realize that he is, indeed, here with us this Christmas. For the first year ever, I couldn’t think of a SINGLE thing to put on MY Christmas list, but I had an entire document filled with things that I wanted to get Elliott…I have everything I want right here in my sweet, perfect, little family. At the end of the day, all I care about is snuggling in Christmas jammies with Elliott and his handsome daddy…

    Last year, however, when I was picturing this year’s Christmas, I could have never envisioned that we would be in three different countries within the month of December. I could have never envisioned that we wouldn’t have a home, or a Christmas tree, or a place to hang our stockings, or that we would get take-out on Christmas Eve. I could have never envisioned that we would just wrap two small gifts for Elliott because that’s literally all we had time to do. And I’ll be honest–there have indeed been a few times when I’ve had the slightest moment of sadness that I haven’t had a home to decorate and Christmas music playing 24 hours a day throughout our home since November. I haven’t had the time or the opportunity to carefully select and beautifully wrap Christmas presents. It hasn’t been a neat, tidy, perfectly orchestrated Christmas season…but it has been PERFECT for US. It has been perfect for Elliott, and it has been perfect for our family. We got to spend the hours we would normally spend shopping, putting up Christmas lights, cutting down a tree, and decorating instead being entirely outward focused…serving, loving, and bringing the gospel to those in real need. We got to simplify this year…majorly simplify…so that it is just our wonderful little family, waking up on Christmas morning in the home of a dear friend who let us stay in her house, opening a few simple gifts, and simply enjoying being together.

    So now that you’re probably feeling pretty darn guilty that you have been running around like a crazy person this Christmas season, cutting in line at Toys R Us, and making sure that your kid had the most popular toy of 2011 sitting under the tree, and SERVING someone in need has perhaps been far from your mind, let me just be honest. I probably wouldn’t choose to do my Christmas like this every year…I’m not quite THAT holy, you know :). This isn’t going to turn into a sermon about Jesus being the reason for the season (although he IS, you know). (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) I am  grateful that God gave us an opportunity to serve and travel this Christmas season, but you’d better believe I’m already picturing where our Christmas tree will go next year in our new rental house…and I’m already thinking about how I want to wrap Elliott’s presents…and I’m already thinking about the new Christmas CD I want to listen to next year… and I’m already thinking about the peppermint brickle that I’m going to bake…and the garland and the lights I will put up around our house…Ahh, only 364 more days to go!!  But for now, I am simply and overwhelmingly GRATEFUL. Grateful for our family, grateful for each of our families, grateful for our friends, grateful for the adventure the Lord has us on, grateful that Grammy Karen got us some Peppermint Bark so we had a fun dessert after eating take-out on Christmas Eve.

    Here are a few picture highlights from our Christmas 2011!

    COLORADO CHRISTMAS!

    We got to spend our Colorado Christmas with ALL of my family!

    "Yeah, as cool as that new smart phone is, I really like this piece of wrapping paper…"
    Laughing SO hard with Grammy Karen!
    The Whole Crew!

    Mauss Cousins

    Andrew, Elliott, Gryffin, Rowan, Courtney, Fable, Jaxon and Finn

    TACOMA CHRISTMAS!

    Melisa gave me some Christmas paper so I could make ONE Christmas decoration that was my very own…REJOICE, indeed!

    Christmas Eve

    He just really cares more about small, choke-able objects than the gifts under the tree…
    Opening a present with his cousin Micah
    "I can play the drums on this present!"

    Moberg Cousins

    Elliott, Taylor, Hailey, and Micah
    I love this kid so much!
    Brian and I are wearing Bronco colors instead of Christmas colors…oops.
    Reading the Christmas story out of his new picture bible before going to bed. (Thank you, Grandpa & Nonna!)

    Christmas Morning 2011

    Going after the presents under the tree
    "Hmm…which one is for me?"
    "Probably this one…it smells like a BOOK!"
    "Cool! A mirror book! I LOVE mirrors!"
    "Oooh! I like Daddy's new boots! Can I try them on?"
    "Whoa! A megaphone for Mommy so she can preach on the streets? What an awesome gift you picked out, Daddy!"
    Our family on Christmas morning…Still in our pjs, of course
    Merry 1st Christmas!