Things have been pretty uneventful around these parts (I’m not complaining). Here are a few pictures of the family from the past few weeks:

Caleb got to meet his cousin Kaiden for the first time yesterday. Although, I don’t think either of them knew each other was there. We got a picture of them side by side. My, how much they grow up in just four months.

My brother Ryan and his wife Amanda welcomed Kaiden Charles Holloway into the world today! He’s a healthy little boy that’s 6 pounds, 12 ounces and I think they said 20 1/2 inches long. They went in to the hospital at about 3am this morning and she gave birth sometime around 4-5 this evening. We stopped by and visited with them and everyone’s doing well. They’ll be spending the night in the hospital tonight and then going home soon. Thought I’d make a quick post and share a picture of Caleb’s new cousin though, so everyone can sneak a peek! If you want to send a note to Ryan, you can email him at ryanholloway AT gmail DOT com.

This morning Caleb had his first solid meal. By “solid” I really mean breast milk with a little rice cereal sprinkled in. I don’t think he really knew what we were so excited about, but he enjoyed the attention and change of scenery. And yes, we did this with full knowledge of what horrendously foul substance awaits us in tomorrow’s diaper change.

Our baby is 4 whole months old! Well, technically 4 months and 1 day. I wanted to wait until we came back from his well check to post. Right now, he’s sleeping off the trauma from his vaccinations. From his measurments, he’s long and lean. His height went from the 56% to the 86%! His weight dropped from the 67% to the 36%. I blame that on his constant need to be walking or sitting and being easily distracted when eating. The doc said he is doing great and “is quite a handsome fellow.”

We got the OK to start weaning him off of Zantac. We’ll start by taking out the morning dose and watching his behavior throughout the day. If he doesn’t show any signs of reflux, then we can stop it altogether. After those few days of observation, we can start him on solids. Due to his past food sensitivities, we’re going to only give him cereal until around six months where we will then introduce the vegetables and fruits. Thats fine by me. I originally wanted to delay solids completely until six months but he’s showing signs that he’s ready to transition to “big boy” food.

That’s pretty much the rundown of the well check. Developmentally, he’s doing great. He’s talking all the time and becoming more interactive with his world. He has rolled over a couple of times but once he got the hang of it, he stopped and moved on to bigger and better things like sitting and standing/walking. He can grasp toys perfectly with little effort and can also push buttons expecting something to happen. He loves “this little piggy” and is getting the hang of “peek-a-boo”. He laughs at funny sounds and faces and recognizes both of his parents’ voices and will turn his head when he hears them. He has also started to “read ” books aloud along with whoever is reading to him. He is sleeping a good six to eight hours straight each night and a total of 10 1/2 to 12 hours throughout it, giving Mommy and Daddy wonderful, glorious sleep.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I posted the first post on why Christ suffered and died: To Absorb the Wrath of God. So today is day #2 focusing on the greatest event in human history. (Keep in mind I’m “ordering” these for the sake of organization, not importance) Also Bri will be posting a four month Caleb update (so fast eh?!?!) tomorrow after his doc appt.

#2 - Christ Suffered and Died to Please His Heavenly Father

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief – Isaiah 53:10

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:2

Jesus did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and
take the whip out of his hand. He did not force him to be merciful
to humanity. His death was not the begrudging consent of
God to be lenient to sinners. No, what Jesus did when he suffered
and died was the Father’s idea. It was a breathtaking strategy,
conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history
of the world. That is why the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose
and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”
(2 Timothy 1:9).

Already in the Jewish Scriptures the plan was unfolding. The
prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of the Messiah, who was to
take the place of sinners. He said that the Christ would be “smitten
by God” in our place.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities. . . . All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ
for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Christ did not intrude on
God’s plan to punish sinners. God planned for him to be there.
One Old Testament prophet says, “It was the will of the LORD to
crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

This explains the paradox of the New Testament. On the one
hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath
because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ’s suffering is a beautiful
act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father. So
Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” (Matthew 27:46). And yet the Bible says that the suffering
of Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
(Ephesians 5:2).

Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of
God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did
the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his own Son—the one
whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. Yet
the Son’s very willingness to receive it was precious in God’s sight.
The wrath-bearer was infinitely loved.

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.

Happy Easter!  What an awesome day this has been.  A time to reflect upon the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a time spent with family and friends in celebration.  We had a fun time with Caleb, as he got the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Grandparents and the Great-Grandparents, as well as his uncle and aunt.

Reflecting upon today, we might ask what was the purpose of the death of Christ?

I thought it might be edifying to go through John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” (50 Reasons Why He Came To Die) - one post per reason, one at a time.  Perhaps this 50 days might be a time to grow in understanding of the greatest event in human history - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why did he suffer and die?

Appropriatly, post #1 is on Easter Sunday:

#1 - Christ Suffered and Died to Absorb the Wrath of God

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us—for it is written,

“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” - Galatians 3:13

“God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” - Romans 3:25

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to
suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness
for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving.
Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.
God’s law demanded, “You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
(Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more.

This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over
him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn’t God.

Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small
Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the
one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of
respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him
is not trivial—it is treason. It defames God and destroys human
happiness.

Since God is just, he does not sweep these crimes under the rug
of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to
be punished, and he has made this clear: “For the wages of sin is
death” (Romans 6:23). “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would
be unjust. The demeaning of God would be endorsed. A lie would
reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, “Cursed be everyone
who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the
Law, and do them” (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).

But the love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over
all sinful humanity. He is not content to show wrath, no matter how
holy it is. Therefore God sends his own Son to absorb his wrath and
bear the curse for all who trust him. “Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in the text
quoted above (Romans 3:25). It refers to the removal of God’s
wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God
himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the
wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God’s wrath
is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never
stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness
of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But
when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look
at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.

Okay, by now, all of you should have realized that the walking post was an April Fools Day joke - albeit, an awesome one. Apart from that, Our little guy loves to practice his walking. Here’s yet another video of his walking progress… and please excuse my fresh-out-of-bed appearance.

Andy found one of his old childhood toys in a box that was stored away in the garage. “Freckles” was a hand puppet he’s had since he was a wee one and grew up with him as one of his favorite toys. When first excavated from the box, the puppet was in rough condition and needed some eyeballs reapplied after a trip to the washing machine. But with a little love and some hot glue, Freckles has been resurrected to entertain the next generation of Holloways.

How a baby can have this deep a voice, I have no clue. It cracks me up every time he talks.

Ever since Caleb sat up for the first time, he never looked back. Lying down is just so below him now. He hasn’t even learned to roll over (only a couple of time has he done it and I think those were by accident) and now all he wants to do is sit or stand. It’s pretty exhausting for the caretaker because he can’t do it without assistance. A couple of days ago, Andy taught him that he could be pulled from lying down to standing up just by holding on to Andy’s hands. Now, that’s all he wants to do as well. If you try to get him up, he’ll straighten out his little legs and get stiff as a board in order to stand up.

He’s also gotten bored with his beloved bouncy seat. When he’s in it, he does these little baby crunches in an attempt to sit up. We bought him an exersaucer last night and a bumbo seat is on the way. It can’t get here soon enough. He definitely has more of an appreciation for rough housing. He loves playing “airplane” and falling back on pillows.

Caleb also has a new best friend (besides Mommy, of course). His name is Mirror Baby. Every time he sees his reflection he breaks out into a huge grin and pats the mirror with his hands. I hope it doesn’t break his heart to learn it’s just himself in there.

Our little one grew up so much just overnight. He want’s to do “big boy” things now and learns new things by the minute. I really can’t keep track of it all. I know they say they grow up so fast, but come on! I really hope he slows down soon; I’m starting to get whiplash.

Today was an incredible day.  I don’t know where to start.  Okay first we woke up like any day.  Yes, Caleb got up a bit early, but everything was normal.  We played with him for a bit, Bri got him dressed in his favorite jeans and flannel shirt, and set him in the living room to play.  We both sat down and began to eat breakfast when all of a sudden Bri spits out her cereal. Low and behold I look up to see Caleb walking around the living room!  

We were shocked.  Bri showed me where some studies have shown that really intelligent babies can learn to walk simply from observation, and try it out on their own much earlier than other babies.  Needless to say, based on his parents, Caleb is extremely intelligent and so the explanation made sense!  We snapped a quick shot of him and will post some video later.  Truly an incredible way to start a Wednesday!