Jonathan Day

On Sunday, I played Ultimate Frisbee with my fellow graduate students.  This is a regular occurrence every Sunday.  I play pretty hard because I am competitive and I like to work up a sweat.  Although this past Sunday, I should not have eaten tacos for lunch and early dinner.

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I love playing with Liam too.  He has so much fun!  This past week he has been standing up constantly.  Last night he again slept through the night!  But, at 6 in the morning he was uncomfortable, so he started crying.  When I went in to get him, he was standing up in his crib, while crying!  It was the first time he has done something like that.

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Yesterday, Jess and I heard Liam do something new.  He decided to SCREAM.  He was in his jumper having a great time talking.  Then, when I mimicked him talking, he SCREAMED.  It was not because he was angry or upset, but it was just him practicing.  He did it four times in a row, each one after I mimicked him, and then he stopped.

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Today, I have been working mostly in the Sycamore Mall.  The Clubhouse is being used for some training exercises.  I have gotten lots of reading done in preparation for teaching my classes in the Fall.  I also received the tentative schedule for Spring 2011 and I really like it!

After the Dissertation Defense, I took the rest of the week off to spend time with Jess and Liam and rest up for a long stretch of work ahead of me.  Liam has been pulling himself up to a stand on a regular basis and is starting to walk along the gate as he holds on with both hands.  God is also blessing us with Liam sleeping through the night!  Last night, however, Liam woke up a couple of times because he was uncomfortable, not because he was hungry.

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“Liam Stands Up 6-24-2010″ Video:  Liam decides to wait about 2 minutes this time before he stands up.  It happens at 2:08.  I shut off the video a few seconds after this so that I could stand behind him.

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On Tuesday, I had the AC in the car checked.  I prayed that it would cost nothing to fix or that it would be minimal cost.  The report came back that the AC works fine, but for only 17 dollars the mechanics put in a special chemical to work with the freon to make the AC colder – praise God!

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On Saturday, Jess, Liam, and I went down to Macomb for a few hours to hang out with Casey and Steph at the Fair.  Casey is my office mate next year.  Steph is his significant other.  It was extremely hot, but we had fun getting corn dogs and fried candy bars, riding rides, and eating pizza.

Last night, Liam crawled correctly for a couple of feet.  Great Grandpa let me know he did the same thing in California.  But this morning he was able to crawl correctly for a longer distance.  Also, last night, Liam pulled himself up to a stand within his gated community*.  He was able to pull himself up to a stand about a month ago, but this is the first time he was able to do it using the gate.  And last night Liam slept all the way through the night!  Praise God for all three developments!
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*gated community – the phrase coined by Jennifer Surratt to mean the enclosed gate we put Liam in.

Praise God!  At 12:30pm today, I completed the defense of my dissertation.  God definitely gave me the peace that passes all understanding and that is now one of my all time favorite versus – Philippians 4:6-7*.  The defense took a couple of hours, but the questions were not too difficult.  At the end of the defense, all of the professors on my committee congratulated me.  And having the defense behind me is definitely a huge burden off my shoulders.  When I met Jess afterwards, she surprised me with an awesome gift – a beautiful pocket watch with an engraving (Jonathan Day, Ph.D.).  I have never told her that I have always really liked pocket watches, so it was definitely the perfect gift.  After the defense, Professor Dion took Jess, Liam, and I out to a Korean restaurant.  It was amazing to experience the very different taste of Korean food.  Tonight, Jess and I plan to celebrate by going to Chick-Fil-A.  As a bonus, it helps out one of our church’s mission trips to Belize.  Right now, I am waiting for the mechanics to see if there is anything wrong with our car’s air conditioning.  Our AC works like 80% of the time and it is hot today, so it provided extra motivation to get it checked out.

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*Philippians 4:6-7:  ”Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Every day feels like Father’s Day when I see my son.  My love for him is so great!  I can hardly understand how great my love is for my son that I can’t even imagine how great the love God has for us.