It's the Little Things (Letter to Baby)

Dear Avonlea,

It's midnight. I should probably go to bed, because the night is short, and you'll be raring to go in a few short hours.  But I just fed you, and now I can't sleep.

I can't sleep, my girl, because I am in awe of you.

As I was looking at you while you nursed, I just had an overwhelming feeling of peace and happiness.  And I just had to come and write it down, because sometime in the near future, I am going to have a very specific moment of UNhappiness. And I am going to wish for peace with every fiber of my being. And before that happens, I want to make sure I write this down so that I can return to it and remind myself of the wonder that is you.

Little girl, I love every single little thing about you.

The way your hair gets crazy on both sides after you nap because you sleep on your tummy.

The way you cross your feet when you sit, and it makes you look like a little lady.

The way you stick your tongue out when you encounter something new, and your little brain is just working, working, working to figure it out.

Your soft skin. Often, I will just "pet" your arms and legs while you nurse just to feel the softness.

Your eyelashes, and how sometimes, I wonder how they don't get tangled in your eyebrows, they're so long.

That little pointer finger that is always the first to explore something new, and how you just pick, pick, pick at that something. Just the other day, you worked on a sticker for 20 minutes, stick, unstick, stick, unstick.

How, when you're laying on the floor, and you can't hold yourself up on all fours anymore, you flop onto your belly, arch your back, put your arms and legs in Superman pose, and then pump them back and forth, like an upside down turtle. You'll crawl soon, little girl.

Your little giggle, usually reserved, but released at full strength when you're being thrown in the air, "thrown up on", or "stepped on". You're going to be a daredevil.

The way your little tongue is working so hard to form new sounds, and how you are fascinated with my teeth.

How, even though you can't crawl, you can still manage to get from one side of the room to the other with your cute little roll.

And how you get stuck under the coffee table and cry for me to rescue you.

Your little tooth that has popped in, and how I hear it scraping on all your toys as you figure out what this new invader in your mouth is.

The cute little "inny" belly button you have that always looks a little bit dirty (just like mommy's).

The way you wipe your entire face when you want to itch your nose--the way that mommy and Aunt Ashley do that drives Daddy crazy.

The way your little cheeks get super-pink if it's too windy, or you eat something new, or you get too hot--you always look like a little cherub.

I even love the things about you that can be kind of irritating, like how scratchy your nails seem to be *all the time*, or how you always seem to have sock fuzz between your toes, no matter how well I wash.


For these reasons, and so many more, I praise God for the wonder that He has given me. You are my treasure, little one. But more importantly, you are God's treasure. You were created in His image, and He made you just the way He wanted you to be. I want you to know how much I adore you. You may not always like everything about yourself. You may hate your hair, or your nose, or your eyelashes, or the way you do something--I remember feeling that way about myself many times. But, little girl, today I want to tell you that you are perfect just the way you are.

I'm so glad I get to be your Momma.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. I think it is my favorite time. We moved away from the ice and snow that could typically accompany this winter season--but since that is my least favorite part, it's okay with me. :)

Christmas was always my mom's favorite time of year, too. Her house would be decorated to the nines--she had 5 trees of various sizes around the house, plus garland around all the doorways and handrails through the house.  She loved nativity sets, as well. She had a nativity set that she would put out, one piece every day--with baby Jesus arriving on Christmas morning.  Her Christmas dishes were a beautiful highlight, too. Every time we went on a vacation, we would look for a Christmas ornament for our trip, and mom would find a shop that sold dishes to look for a Christmas place setting. I think she has about 20 settings overall, all different, all beautiful.

It was hard for me to get into the holiday spirit in the Christmas after mom passed away. It took me several days to put the tree up, because it would make me sad to think of the tree being up and getting into that celebratory spirit without her.  But as the years have passed, it has slowly gotten easier. This year, the joy returned, as I thought about decorating the tree and sharing the beauty of the season with Avonlea.

It was so fun seeing this time of year through her eyes. She's not old enough to "get" any of it yet, but watching her eyes light up when she saw the tree and the ornaments was so heartwarming.

We spent the week before Christmas in Ohio, celebrating with Nick's family and my family two subsequent weekends. Avonlea did such a great job. She figured out how to unwrap presents, and she especially loved playing with the tissue paper. Most especially I enjoyed "sharing" her with all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas and grandpas.  She won't get to grow up with them close by, so I was so glad we were able to go back to see them while she is still young.  There will come a time when she might think that gifts are the most important thing, but I hope that Avonlea truly values the time that we get to spend with family, and celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Mom had a tradition that she got from my Aunt Barb: she would give us a new Christmas book each year.  I loved getting the books out of the box and sharing them with Avonlea. She's still too young for most of them, but I look forward to sharing them with her in the future:

I started that tradition this year with Avonlea. I got her the book "The Smallest Gift of Christmas", and inside I wrote her first note:

(I also got her a Christmas "touch and feel" book that she could actually "read" this year.)

I also got out a little bit of mom: I used her Christmas dishes for breakfast at the Hume family get-together. The table wasn't as pretty as Mom would have made it, but it was a little bit of her, and I think she would have appreciated that her dishes were still being used.

To prove that I am not Debbie, take a look at the strawberry/banana "candy canes". Saw them in a Taste of Home magazine, but they proved an epic fail in the execution. Oh, well. Makes for a silly story.

I am so glad Avonlea was able to spend time with her great-grandma and her great-Papaw, as well as her Grandpa (PawPaw, as we call him), Grampy and Grammy, and Aunt Ashley.

Short Update on Life

I haven't written in a while. The holidays are here, which means busy, busy, busy. Every year, I seem to tell myself that I'll slow down and enjoy myself more the next year, but the next year comes around, and I seem to be behind the 8-ball again.  It doesn't help that we shorten the season by 10 days by traveling to Ohio and Indiana. My determination to not decorate until Thanksgiving might have to come to an end if we travel again next Christmas. I don't get enough time to enjoy the decorations!

Avonlea is 8 months now, and changing every day. It is amazing the new things she is learning to do. She is currently cutting her first tooth. She is using her index finger to explore every new thing she sees, and she's already at the point where her toys are not as interesting as electrical cords.  She's not really interested in crawling yet--mostly because she likes to be lazy and just lay on her back. Hopefully she'll start to move soon!

What a sweet girl she is turning out to be. She is smiles all the time. We go to the grocery store, or the mall, or Target, and everyone just oohs and aahs over her. I always tell her to say hi and be friendly, and she flashes her cute grin. She is good about going to people, too. Her initial separation anxiety has pretty much gone away, and she will now go to anyone. She always looks back at me as if to ask, "is this okay?" but then enjoys her time visiting with others.

I recently turned down a job offer. It was an amazing opportunity, one I would like to have come back to me again sometime in the future, but I am just not quite ready to leave Avonlea full-time yet. I understand how many families depend on a 2-income household, and believe me, we are a family that could certainly use it. But both Nick and I just didn't feel like it was time yet, so we are willing to make the sacrifices we need to make in order for me to be able to stay home.

I am still enjoying my "Baby Mamas" group that meets once a week. We recently added a new mom to the group, and we also added a new baby, too!  Sweet Dianna had her baby girl, Evie, taking our girl total up to 3--Evie, Ava, and Avonlea.  They are still sorely outnumbered by the boys, though, with Samuel, Levi, Noah, Wyatt, Quinn, Fletcher, Joshua, and two incubating boys keeping the testosterone levels high.  At least our girls will learn to be rough-and-tumble--Avonlea is already used to being poked in the eyes and climbed over. :)

Avonlea had her first major sickness. She had a fever of 102 for a couple of days, though with no other real symptoms. We took her to the doctor because of the impending airline flight, to rule out an ear infection. They had to do a urinalysis. Have you ever thought about how a baby gives a urine sample?  They basically taped a pee bag to her private parts, then I had to wait around until she peed, and then peel off the bag and put it into a pee cup. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever done. Thankfully, the sample came back negative for an infection. She just had a weird virus--the doctor thinks it was probably roseola.

I did a body-after-baby bootcamp, and was doing really well before Thanksgiving. I've kind of "fallen off the wagon" a bit, which is going to be rough, considering I have a half-marathon coming up. With traveling and the baby being sick, I just haven't had the time. I hope to get back into the swing of things when I get back to California.

I have a few other things to post about, so I will have to do so again soon. Right now, I'm headed to bed--I have a lively 8-month old to chase after tomorrow!

Letter to Baby

Dear Avonlea,

So, I totally missed your 6-month letter. You know why that is? Because we have been SO BUSY!  You have changed your naps, so you now sleep about an hour in the morning around 9, and then take a longer, 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon around 1 or 1:30.  This means I'm not able to get as much done during the day, but it also means that we have a lot more time together during the day, too.

Your little personality is really starting to come out. You love to smile and giggle. You play independently really well. You have been starting to manipulate smaller objects. If I give you something that has a zipper or a buckle, you'll sit and play with it for 20 minutes or so. This was actually a huge help when we flew to Philadelphia for Girls' Weekend--you played with your diaper changing station for a long time.

We're still working with you on a few things. You go down for naps really well, but your sleep at night isn't going all that well. You sleep 3-4 hours at a time. Occasionally you'll sleep for 5, but not often. You very consistently get up between 10 and 11pm. We're also working on eating solid foods. You do not like to eat off of a spoon!  You will clamp your lips together and refuse to open them! Thankfully, you will eat out of the food pouches, so we've been doing it that way, which helps.  You like apples, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, mangoes, peaches, plums, and water. You DO NOT like squash, green beans, or peas. We'll keep working on it. :)

You are finally rolling over consistently. You can jet yourself around on the blanket--one day this week, I found you halfway under the couch!  You roll around like crazy in your crib, too. You often end up perpendicular to how I put you in the crib initially. Sometimes I'll hear you in the monitor with a frustrated cry and go in to your room to find you snuggled up against the solid side of your crib, unable to move.

You love to be outside. I have been taking you out for daily walks in your stroller, and you are content to ride along with me for an hour or more. Sometimes I am able to extend your awake time a little bit that way. Daylight Saving Time really messed up your bedtime routine--you used to go to bed at 7, but now we're pretty set at 6:30. Occasionally I can keep you up a little bit later, but usually you're pretty fussy.

Speaking of fussy, you really don't fuss very often anymore. You're growing and maturing so much. You really only fuss when you're ready for bed. Because you don't fuss often anymore, we really can take you just about anywhere. You're able to sit in high chairs, so we will take a few toys in the diaper bag, and you can sit in a restaurant with us and behave so nicely. You also do really well when you're with Daddy. You love him so much!

You're so chatty. You still sing yourself to sleep--usually in the car. You have the short a and short o sounds down pat. You use the consonants m, b, and d when you're talking. I swear you say maamaamaa when I'm around, and daadaadaa when Daddy is around, but he isn't convinced. Sunni thinks so, too!  You love blowing raspberries now, and when I blow them back at you, you giggle. You also sing along to the music that I play in the house or in the car. It's fun to watch you bounce on your butt to the music. There is one song in particular on Daddy's phone that makes you bounce, and it makes us laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nloSwFDPJAY

You are super ticklish on your thighs and on your ribcage. I love making you giggle and bend over with laughter. Your smile and your laugh makes my heart sing. You giggle a few times, and then make an "aak" noise, and then squeal like a little piglet. It's so funny!  http://instagram.com/p/g9YAqmMqnn/  http://instagram.com/p/g-6YFjsqmE/

You love going to Baby Mamas group on Tuesday. Joshua, Ava, Fletcher and Wyatt have become such good friends. You and Joshua tend to tackle each other often.

Everyone talks about how cute you are, everywhere we go. I've got to work on making sure you say thank you, but stay humble about it. Hopefully people will recognize how smart you are, too! :)

You still don't show any signs of getting any teeth. You chew on everything, but you have since you figured out how to put stuff in your mouth, so I don't consider that a sign.

I love you more than you'll ever know, my chunky monkey, my little nugget.
Mommy :)

Rhythm Child

It's fun being part of a Mom's group. It's nothing formal, like a MOPS group or anything--just a bunch of moms from our church that get together once a week to hang out and pray for each other, and watch our kids grow up together.

One of the activities that we did recently was take our kiddos to see a musical group called Rhythm Child perform at one of our outdoor malls. It takes place once a month--but this month, since they had started decorating for Christmas, it took place indoors. It was a little LOUD and overwhelming, but the kids seemed to have a good time anyway.

We went to Barnes and Noble afterwards to get some coffee and sit and look at books and chat.

Joshua using Avonlea's head as the drum:

A video of the cacophony:

InstaSunday

I haven't posted my Instagram photos for a while. Here's a fun little recap of this week!

Avonlea is rolling around a bunch more. She's making her way around the blanket now:

Cutie Patootie:

Avonlea and Gus filmed roles in Rhett and Link's newest music video this week:

Selfies with my sweet girl:

A picture with Daddy on set with Rhett and Link:

Still going through physical therapy, but seeing some definite improvement:

It's FINALLY getting cold!  My little Yoda bundles up and accompanies me:

Some beautiful sunsets after the rain:

Nick and I got to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire thanks to our neighbor who watched the girl:

Accurate tshirt:

Did The Graffiti Run today with my friend Kerry. Before and After:

We headed to Sonic afterwards for some tots and sweet tea--sadly, it was an overall poor experience. :(

Cedarville Magazine Announcement

Our University publishes an "Alumnotes" section every quarter. I look forward to reading about who has had babies, who gets married, etc.  They pretty much have a standard format for the announcements. Mom and Dad name and graduation year, baby name, birth date, dad job, mom job.  I decided to mix it up a bit with Avonlea's announcement.