Motherhood

Becoming a mother has changed me, in some ways the change seemed immediate, in others it has happened gradually. H and I just returned from spending 5 days visiting Papa Bill & Jo Jo in Louisiana. We had such a good time and got lots of quality bonding time together. It was my first time to travel alone with H and I was so proud of him. He did such a good job and on every flight we were on someone would stop me and tell me what a sweet boy he was or how he did such a good job. Everyone we sat next to H tried to share his snacks with and gave them stickers and toys to play with. People are always telling me how beautiful H is and are so charmed when he just talks and talks to them. I was thinking over this trip about all of the things that I used to inwardly cringe at before becoming a Mommy... things like never getting to eat or drink anything without a child appearing and wanting whatever you had, kids waking up before dawn and running around the house screaming, not being able to complete a task without some kind of interruption, toddlers crawling all over you and being your constant shadow, stinky diapers and projectile vomit, the list could continue, but I think you get the idea. Not that I always gracefully embrace all of these things now, but I certainly don't cringe the way I did before becoming Mommy.

At night in Louisiana H and I would cuddle in bed together and I would sing songs of Truth to him until he fell asleep. I couldn't help thinking about our Heavenly Father and the pride and joy He feels when we want to draw close to Him and let Him sing over us His peace, hope for our futures and His unending love. Being H's Mommy has helped me to grasp just a little bit of what it means to love unconditionally. It has also helped me to embrace life's joys and sorrows knowing that I cannot control the outcomes of either. It has changed my relationship with God in that I have put away some of my 'performance anxiety' trying to earn approval and love. H and I can have a terrible day where everything seems to go wrong and I'm totally frustrated, but I don't love him any less on those days than I do on the days where everything goes according to schedule. How much more perfect is God's love towards His children? It does not waver or fluctuate depending on how much we are trusting Him or the number of good deeds we have accomplished. It just is - now that is a miracle.

A few weeks ago I posted about baby James and his battle with a cancerous brain tumor. I have continued to follow his progress and have not stopped thinking about this family and praying urgently for them. I even dreamt about little James last night. James's tumor has come back full force and yesterday his parents took him home under the care of hospice to spend their final days or weeks showing him just how much they love him. I have cried many tears for this family and have cradled H longer, kissed him more and told God how grateful I am for every single day that I get to be H's mommy. I think part of why this has been so emotional for me is that H is just one year older than little James. It could just as easily be H fighting this battle. Our children are gifts given to us by God, they are not possessions to hoard, lives to control, or even promises of bright futures. They are blessings from the Father and He can use them to pour out his blessing in whatever way He chooses.

So, embrace your children today. Embrace your Mommy or Daddy journey wherever it has led you. Embrace the Heavenly Father who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts. Pray, pray for the Sikes family as they care for little James. Pray for all of the Mommies and Daddies who are struggling to care for their children, struggling to conceive children, and those fighting alongside their sick children. And let us give thanks to God.

99 Things About Me

The instructions with this are to bold the ones you’ve done, and leave the others in normal type. So here goes.

1. Started your own blog (x2)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (land twice, not world)
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (does the shower count?)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (very stupid...)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Oklahoma! Native Americans!)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (snorkeling, not scuba diving)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (right wrist in 6th grade)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (you couldn't pay me to do this)
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (thanks Elyse)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (several times in fact)

There are still several things on this list I want to do... maybe I'll look back at this in 10 years and see more to bold. What's your 99? I'm tagging Amy, Kasey and Jen

Pray for James

Last Thursday, the Sikes Family found out that their almost 8 month old son had a brain tumor. He has since gone through 3 brain surgeries and most recently has been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. I graduated college with Kara, we met Freshman year and had a few classes together over the years. This is James





I remember clearly what it was like to sit with parents in Iraq who's children were facing life threatening illnesses and undergoing risky surgical procedures. I don't know if anything can make a parent feel more helpless or scared. Please pray for this family. James will soon begin a year of chemotherapy treatments and has been given a 50/50 chance of survival. You can read their story here and continue to pray for James through his battle with cancer.

give a 1 year old a camera...

and you will get pictures like these


foot!


cup!


this is his leg

And here are some recent Mommy taken pictures




Playing by the kiddie pool


Look Mom! I put on all my bibs!

Ty

I never had the chance to meet Ty, he left the daycare center before we got there... but we sure talk about Ty A LOT. Poor kid really gets a bad rap and nobody even got to meet him. You see, whenever someone in H's class at school spills something, drops food on the floor, or generally makes a big mess, the teacher jokingly says "Uh-oh, who did that? Was it Ty?"

The first time I heard about this I was having lunch with H at school (see emergency room incident) and when one of the kids spilled their milk the teacher asked if Ty did it and all the kids yelled "yeah! Ty!". I noticed a few days later that H kept saying what I thought was "uh-oh, die" when he would drop something, but didn't put two and tow together until dropping H off a few days later and the kids were already eating breakfast. When I set him in his chair his shoe hit the table and knocked his cereal on the floor, H quickly said "uh-oh, Ty!". I looked at the teacher and she laughed and said "Ty didn't do that, he isn't even at the center anymore!" That's when I realized he had been blaming Ty for everything that he spilled.

A month later he still blames Ty when things spill on the floor, but at least now he goes to get the broom and clean up! That Ty sure is a clumsy kid! See for yourself below.

feely goup

I have Fridays off this summer so H and I are going to be doing some more art projects. Yesterday, we made feely goup. I found the recipe in a book a I got a month ago. The book is and it has some really great ideas!


Feely goup is cool because there are only 2 ingredients and it is super easy to clean up. Not to mention this provided my 1.5 year old with almost an hour of entertainment! For such a short attention span, this stuff is pretty cool! It starts off as a liquid and then hardens into a crumbly, clayish substance. H's favorite part of the liquid stage was putting food coloring in and then stirring it with spoons to watch it change colors. He didn't like to feel it with his hands when it was wet, but once it dried he thought it was pretty cool. I didn't get any pictures of the wet stage because my hands were covered... but here is the dried stuff.





To make your own feely goup all you need is:

2 Cups cornstarch
1 Cup water
optional: food coloring

Mommy & Me

I've been looking for a local Mommy & Me gymnastics class to take H to and I finally found one this week! We went for the first time this morning and while the structure was a little much for a 19 month old, he had a lot of fun running down the tumble track and doing rolls on the mats. We might wait till he is a little older to go back, but it was still fun! There's a short clip of us doing handstands down the tumble track below.





Thankfully Daddy came too, cause I was sure sweating trying to keep up with this little one!