“the very paradox of human existence, namely, that although man is a passing creature who often does merely strut and fret his short hour upon life’s stage, he is also more than a passing creature of an earthly day—for he is made for eternity, for God himself. Therefore, what happens to him and in him, as well as what is done by him, though of short temporal duration, has eternal value.“ (James Boice)

My wise wife has always been on my case about grapes and not giving whole grapes to our children when they are too young. I resistively followed her advice, cutting grapes into quarters whenever we would serve them. On most grocery outings we would skip the grapes altogether because Jenn just didn’t want to have the stress of knowing that a stray grape might be left under a couch for Clarie to choke on.

Currently we struggle with my mother, who still insists on giving cherry tomatoes to Claire. Well, very recently, a young boy choked on a grape in San Jose and is has a severely damaged brain as a result. Read the story at the Mercury News and tell me if your not now convinced that foods like grapes, hotdogs, popcorn, cherry tomatoes can be a severe choking hazard for kids.

Baby Boy Chokes On Grape

Consider, it’s one thing to cut them up, but also consider that if you have older kids even though they may be old enough to eat them whole, it’s very easy for the parent to be distracted, leave the older child to eat his grapes, and then find that the older child had left the bowl of grapes on the floor and the younger one is crawling to get them!

To alleviate the stress of having to keep track of where individual grapes, etc may roll, you may find Jenn’s position easier. Don’t buy grapes until all your children are old enough that they are not a choking hazard.

My brother Mike started a new blog where he describes daily experiences as a “fractional pilot”. His life involves spending an entire week flying the country and then an entire week back at home. So a fraction of his life is spent in the air, at airports, hotels, and interesting cities around the country and some of the nearby vacation islands.

He’s a pilot for a private jet company that provides private jet service for people able to pay the huge price tag. So he’s often in nice vacation spots and interesting small airports, describing his experiences. His latest experiences include hurricanes, secret service agents, mexican cola, huge yachts, and more.

For someone who probably barely passed English courses in high school, he has a very nice writing style too.

Click Here for Mike Lombardi’s Blog

A little boy had a bike accident with a car which caused serious injuries. We first became aware of it because of our church email prayer list.

He’s recovering now and learning to do many things over again. He can’t move his right side much at all, he’s going through speech therapy and many other things.

It really tugs at our hearts because we also have a small little boy and parents have so many hopes and dreams for the life of their child that you can only imagine how your whole life is derailed because of things like this.

The parents put up a website where you can see some photos of Dominic at his birthday party and updates on his condition. The website has ways to donate money. Please support and pray for them if you are compelled to do so.

Dominic’s Blog and Website

Nearly every morning I make myself a toasted sandwich with peanut butter, fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries, berries, etc), and honey. Jenn, Claire and Matthew will usually be sleeping. I’ll enter the room with sandwich and two latte’s in hand and announce “rising and shining”.

Jenn will get up and use the restroom while I sit, drinking my latte, and eating my sandwich. Claire is used to Jenn being by her side and so Claire inevitably begins to awaken and sometimes make her fussy noises and sometimes not. But she will soon notice my sandwich and make her way towards it, even with eyes mostly closed. If she was making fussy noises, they stop as she becomes focused on getting my sandwich.

Some mornings I’m more prepared to break off a piece, and other mornings she just grabs the whole thing. Then I have to fight my way to get some. But in every case, she is not interested in eating the sandwich. She wants to open the bread, and pick out the cut pieces of fruit that are gooey with peanut butter and honey. What’s left is a couple pieces of bread with some peanut butter and honey, and Claire with hands and mouth full of the same. Thankfully, the baby wipes are in reach for both diaper changes and situations like this.

It’s funny to watch her because she’s still half a sleep, but very content to do this routine. It’s a fair compromise, considering she would otherwise cry away while Jenn is using the restroom and getting some warmer morning clothes on. Now I just have to remember to cut a piece ahead of time because this routine of Claire’s is becoming more common.

The funny thing about this, is that it is very similar to Matthew’s routine when Matthew was Claire’s age. However, he would not take the sandwich apart. Claire is truly a very unique and special little girl.

This year we actually made it to the parade before it started. The past couple years we sorta just showed up when we showed up. But when you have to get everyone dressed, sunscreened, and cart everyone to the parade you might as well get there on time. This time we parked right behind some new friends that happened to visit West Hills church some weeks ago. They were considering going to West Hills church and then we happen to park right behind them. We plan on meeting up with them again too.

Here’s a photo of the family at the parade.

Here’s a photo of one of our new friends kids. The daughter is in the background and the mother is right behind her. The father is just off the picture on the right.

We actually had a very good spot right in front of the announcement booth, so we heard a description of everything that was in the parade. We learned things about the parade that we never knew. For example, this guy on the horse we see every year, but we never knew that he get top awards in various shows and he’s wearing a traditional Mexican outfit and looks forward to being in this parade every year. He’s been doing this for a long time too. I think it was something like 15-20 years.

You can see the entire gallery here.
Click Here for the 4th of July Parade Gallery