Sweet Smiles

Little Miss's mohawk is growing a little too long to stand up straight anymore.  Now it is a little tuft of hair so today I thought I'd give a hair clip a try.  It didn't stay in too long but she gave me some great smiles before it fell out!

Virgina Beach

I thought I would post some pictures of our June vacation before the summer is over!
This was a fun week with 40 plus people from my mother-in-law's family.
It was fun to reconnect with family we don't see very often and our kids had a great time in the pool, at the beach, and playing with all the other little ones.

 

 

 

 

 

Besides all the fun, one of the things the boys remember most was when Daddy ate a crab right off the beach.  It was so gross I almost cried and threw up right there.  But the boys thought it was the coolest thing in the world so that was enough to make Daddy happy.  And thankfully he didn't get sick!

Telling the Truth

We've had some lessons in telling the truth for a certain 2 year old who began telling this little (cute) lie lately: "Daddy told me."  It would usually play out when asking for a snack.  He'd say, "Can I have fruit snacks?"  And if I answered no, he would say with a nod and a convincing look in his eyes, "Daddy told me!"  As in, Daddy told me I could have one.

It didn't take long for me to figure out that Daddy, who had been working downstairs all day, did not in fact tell him he could have fruit snacks.  I was shocked the first time as I realized my sweet little 2 year old just lied to me!  It was kind of cute but it was still a lie.

As I explained to him how important it is to always tell Mommy the truth, I realized how abstract of a concept "truth" is to a 2 year old.  But after several conversations and trips downstairs to clarify with Daddy that he indeed did not tell Mr. Newton he could have a snack, I think the little guy started to catch on.

When he would say Daddy told me, I would look at him in the eyes and say, "Did Daddy really tell you?"  And he would look at me with those big brown eyes with a half smile on his face and do the half nod, half head shake, going back and forth between yes and no because he thought saying yes would give him a better chance at those fruit snacks but no was probably the right thing to say.  When he told the truth, I praised him like crazy so he could see that obedience brings joy and blessing.  When he lied, I would explain again about the importance of telling the truth.

So we kept working on it and now here are our conversations....

Mr. Newton:  Mommy, I tell you the truth!
Me: Good!  What do you want to tell me?
Mr. Newton:  I have fruit snacks?
Me:  No, not right now. We are about to have dinner.
Then Mr. Newton breaks down crying because he really wants fruit snacks.

I think he thought that telling the truth always gets you what you want and was disappointed to find out that that is not always the case!  So now we are working on teaching him to trust us when we say no with my all time favorite line: Okay, Mommy, I trust you.

Today he was sitting on the couch looking at a book and looked up and said, "I trust you Mommy!"   Yay!  That was a little gift.  I know we have a long way to go in the process, but there have definitely been little steps of progress.

By the way, I realized through all of this that I can't remember Mr. Mister ever going through a lying phase.  He's been through almost every other phase possible (biting, hitting, spitting, you name it) but I don't think he even knows how to lie.  Like today when I went upstairs to put Miss S down for her nap and came down to Mr. Newton crying.  I asked Mr. Mister why his brother was crying and he told me exactly what he had done to him down to every last detail.  While kind of humorous when he is telling me how he hurt his brother, I know this is a very good trait that will be so beneficial down the road!

I Can Write Your Name!

Here is a conversation I had with Mr. Mister today:

Mr.: Mommy, can we go outside and play baseball?

Me: Yep, as soon as I sign some important papers with Daddy for our new house

Mr: I can sign them for you!

Me: Thanks, bud. But you'd have to write my name.

Mr.: I know how to write your name! 

Me: You do?

Mr.:  Yeah! M-O-M-M-Y!

I love him!  I was laughing as I pictured "mommy" written all over the papers for our loan!

5 Months

Yesterday Miss S was 5 months!
 How is that possible?



Dear Sweet Girl,
This picture is what happens when you have older brothers.  They love you so much and you get the biggest smile when they look at you and play with you.  They love to make you giggle with their silly sounds and faces.

You have had quite an eventful month - rolling over, getting teeth, eating some yummy food, and sitting up for a few seconds on your own!  It is so fun to watch you learn and grow.

You are still the happiest, most peaceful baby I have ever seen.  You flash your beautiful smile to anyone who will look at you.  And I just love when I pick you up and you hold onto me and cuddle your face into my neck.  I also love your slobbery kisses.  You are so sweet.

And those rolls - I just can't get enough of them!  I could squeeze and kiss you all day!

I often daydream about who you will become and how I will remember these cuddly baby days with such happiness.  I daily whisper in your ear that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) so that the truth of who you are will be firmly planted in your heart and mind.

I could write pages of how I love you but I'll save some for the monthly updates to come!

First Tooth and First Foods

It's been an eventful week for Miss S.  Her first two teeth have poked through her bottom gums and she had her first taste of solid food.  Besides the excessive drool, I never would have known she was teething.  No fevers, no fussiness...just her sweet smiles and coos as always!

For a few weeks now she has been very interested in what we are eating - watching us intently while we eat, grabbing at our plates when she's on our laps, etc.  The doctor gave the okay to start at her four month check up but it has taken me a few weeks to actually get going.

I started with rice cereal because that's what they say to do but it can't taste that good.  Did any of you start with something besides a bland white paste?  I kind of want to dive right into apples and bananas.

Anyway, she was really cute and all excited to eat but then she didn't know what to do once it was in her mouth.  So she just kept smiling and let it all fall out.  It made us all laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

Sold!

I never thought it would really happen, but our house sold!  Yay!  And we found a new house two miles away that is perfect for our family.  God led us on a very interesting journey to this house, which was on the market the whole time.  I think that if we had originally looked at it in the beginning, we wouldn't have been so excited about it.  I hope to write a blog post someday about the process, but who knows if I'll ever get to it.  So I'll just say that from the beginning we had three main prayers: that our hope would not be in a house but in Him, that we would not rely on worldly wisdom, and that God would send us into a neighborhood where we can be intentional with our neighbors.  This house seems like the perfect answer to all of those requests.

We are really excited but we also know a lot can happen between today when we signed the contract and our closing date of August 1.  So we continue to wait and trust!

This summer has been so crazy already with vacations, Daddy's work, sickness, and now we are adding in closing on our current home and packing up and moving.  It is a daily discipline to take it one day at a time and trust that God gives me enough grace for that day!

A Weekend at the Hospital

We woke up Friday night to the sounds of croup-like cough and breathing coming from the pack-n-play next to me.  I whisked our sweet Miss S out of bed and knew right away that her barking cough and labored breathing was croup.  We had taken Mr. Mister to the ER for it when he was l8 months and I knew hers was bad enough that we didn't have time to waste with steaming up the bathroom or even calling the pediatrician.   It was very scary and the beginning of a very long weekend. 

Long story short, our journey included:

breathing treatments and x-rays at Children's urgent care

an ambulance ride to Children's Hospital ER downtown

more lung x-rays at the ER

being admitted for more monitoring

a scope down the nose

a more invasive lung scope in the OR under anesthesia

an IV to keep her hydrated while she couldn't eat

an overnight stay with constant heart and oxygen monitoring

She was a champion through it all.  

She charmed the nurses with her smiles, coos, and chubby rolls.

Thankfully, the scope of the lung found no foreign object, just lots of inflammation from the croup.  We were discharged Sunday morning, bringing our baby girl home with a yucky cough but at least breathing normally.

Until she woke up from her nap and started wheezing and breathing rapidly again.  As I prepared our things to go back to the ER, Daddy talked to the pediatrician and tried one round of the hot shower mist.  

Thankfully, it worked.

And she slept peacefully last night.

So thankful.

Her cough is still here. And I am sick too. So it's not very fun around here right now.  But we are just thankful to have our girl with us. 

We are also thankful for everyone who prayed for Miss S and for our family, for everyone who helped us with the boys while we were unexpectedly away from them for the weekend, and for everyone who offered  to help with meals and the kids and anything else we needed. We are seriously blessed and loved by many people!  Thank you.

The Lord was obviously present throughout the entire weekend.  So many specific aspects of this experience revealed His sovereignty.  I know that He is good and He is faithful no matter what the outcome would have been.  But I am thankful that He chose to reveal His goodness through sustaining us, giving peace to my anxious heart, giving us sound minds, and of course, for sustaining our daughter and breathing life into her lungs.  Thank you Jesus.