Gideon's First Trip to the Nebraska Bookstore

Although most of you reading this blog don't care, the Nebraska Bookstore is the store I get pretty much all my Cornhusker attire. The larger family Terwilleger has spent oodles of money being decked out in red over the years. So Gideon's first trip was huge for me.... errr... Gideon. I meant Gideon. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Dad, Gideon, Thing 1 and Thing 2... err cousins Noah and Jonah


The boys were playing football on the mini field in the basement of the bookstore.


Gideon loved it when I threw a ball in the mix. Here's hoping!

Freed to Visit Orphans (in Ethiopia)

I saw this video on a new Reformed theology blog called "Between Two Worlds" today.

Total Depravity

For those of you who aren't good Calvinists, total depravity is the first doctrine of Calvinist theology. In a nutshell, it basically says that humans are born in sin, are sinful, and can't do "good" until salvation (and are unable to choose to follow God).
And that, my friends, was played out right before my eyes tonight by our beautiful baby boy.
Kathee and I were cleaning up from supper. We put Gideon on his little fire truck so he could practice walking around in the living room. Kathee checked on him and I hear, "Gideon! NO!!! You do not touch the computer. That is off limits. No. No. No." Great. He responds well to Kathee's discipline and crawls off to do something else.
About 20 minutes later I am sitting in the chair right by the computer. Gideon is messing around on the floor with some of his toys. Then he turns towards the computer and then looks at me. Although I'm watching out of the corner of my eye, I don't let him know I'm watching. So he crawled a bit closer to the computer and looked at me. Then he moved his finger towards the power button on the computer and said out loud, "No." So I was pretty pleased that Kathee's discipline worked well and he learned. Then he crawled forward, put his finger closer and said, "No," again. Great. Except now he decided to touch the computer while saying no. Then he started messing with the button. So up I jump, remind him harshly that Mom told him NOT to touch the computer. I remind him that he disobeyed his mother and then took him upstairs for a couple minutes of alone time... of which he wailed and wailed. I went in, re-explained to him why he was being punished. I asked him if he was to touch the computer and he said, "No."
I love my son dearly. But the kid is depraved (which is why I continue to pray each night I get to put him to bed that he will know Jesus and walk with Jesus each day of his life). Calvin is right. Hear, hear!

Standing... Well, Sort of

As of tonight, Gideon is working on standing on his own. We watched in awe as he pushed away from Mom to stand on his own. He stood for about 5 seconds and then sat down (note: he didn't fall). The picture here took too long to take, but I promise, he was standing on his own a mere second or two before this. He's been standing on and off tonight! If only my camera were faster taking pictures. It won't be long now!

Bad Boy, What You Want, What You Wanna Do?

It's been a bit warm here in Mo-town over the past couple of days. So we broke down and took off Gideon's shirt yesterday and today as the kid sweats like a toilet all the time. I kid you not, Kathee even said, "it's too bad they don't have Ike Turner/Wife Beater onezies for babies." Yeah, that's all we need. And then we can be one of those couples you can watch on Fox at 7PM on Saturday nights (that's when the tv show Cops airs). You know the ones. The husband is wearing a pair of blue jeans, no shirt, and is barefoot, while the wife is wearing a Loonie Toons t-shirt and a pair of glasses from the time of the Nixon administration. The police end up kicking down the door because the neighbors called in "a disturbance." So in come crashing the police, with the little baby dressed pretty much like dad only trade out the blue jeans for a diaper and there you go. So yeah, it's pretty much like that at our house. Enjoy the mental picture as well as the uploaded pictures to the blog.

The New Freak Out

Here's a new one we can't yet figure out.

In the last couple days, Riely and Solomon's afternoon feedings have become a source of some sort of deep trauma or something for Gideon. We aren't sure why the kid throws a freak out each day, but here's how it goes. Kathee or I fill the dog bowls with food. Then the two dogs walk over and start eating. Then Gideon crawls over, pulls himself up on the step, takes a look at the dogs and starts bawling. Totally unpremeditated. It's the weirdest thing. Here are a couple of pictures I grabbed so you could enjoy them.

Gideon and Mom At the End of the Senior Class Trip

Gideon is one tired-out boy, here. This is after spending a couple hours in the water park pool and a couple hours of hanging with the kids. He's ready for a nap (not that he took one the entire way home from Dubuque). When we got home, I fed him, Kathee went to a jewelry party with a friend of her's from church, and I took Gideon for a couple hours to the Rock Island County Fair. He, and we, had a great day.

Gideon with the Seniors

Front row: Gideon Terwilleger
Second row: Kayla F, Leah B, Elizabeth D
Third row: Isaac T, Sydney Q, Robin K, Nic M

Gideon At Eagle Point Park in Dubuque, IA

Gideon got to come along on the senior class trip to Dubuque with the recent high school graduates from my youth ministry (Kathee was along, too). I'll post more pictures with the teens in a bit. Today, however, we went to Eagle Point Park, a park the overlooks the Mississippi River. This series of pictures may have been a bit staged, but we still like them.

Gideon Posing

Walking On Sunshine

So I guess this is a glimpse of what's to come. Tonight while Kathee was having a bit of time out of the house, I started working with Gideon on using his firetruck as a sort of walker. This video is the second try using it. I suppose it won't be too long until he drops the walker and just walks on his own.

So Where Have We Been?

Well, the short answer is... I was in Moldova, Eastern Europe for two weeks, home for a week, and then in Colorado the past 2 weeks. This video is from yesterday afternoon just before heading to the waterslide in our hotel. I love this kid!