One night, Abby was crying at bed time. She wanted to play a computer game/watch a movie/do anything that would delay bed time a little longer. We put her to bed, crying, and not too long after she came to find Chad and myself in our room (we were rearranging).
Abby: What are you doing?
Chad: Moving our bed. Do you want to help? (Abby nods) Ok, you can help us move our bed, then it's time to go to sleep.
Abby: Yay! That's why I was crying Daddy, because I wanted to help you move your bed.
Me: Abby, I think you're full of beans.
Abby: (dead serious) Yeah, I am. Natalie gave them to me for lunch today.
___________________________________________
Me: Abby, Poppa saw your dance movie. He thinks you were so cute.
Abby: I am so cute. (duh)
Me: (trying to think of a way to focus on good character, not just good looks) And you were such a good listener. That's very important too, right?
Abby: (shrugs shoulders)
________________________________________________
Abby: ... Like Bill the Bobber?
Me: You mean Bob the Builder?
Abby: Yep! It's Calvin's favorite tape-on-book.
Me: Book-on-tape?
Abby: No... Colby ripped it and Natalie taped it. Tape-on-book!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
One of those nights.
Remember when you were little and you used to picture what motherhood would be like? All those special times you'd treasure forever and ever, because they were so sweet and straight from a storybook? Remember when reality hit you like a sledgehammer and you realized it wouldn't be all peaches 'n cream, and, in fact, the fairytale times would be fewer than the more stressful/obligatory/simply ordinary day-to-day times?
We had one of those evenings yesterday... not the sledgehammer kind... it was a legitimate, straight from the (small town, farm folk) storybook.
Chad and I loaded up the kids and headed to the farm to pick Grandma Connie's garden since she and Grandpa are in Haiti this week. The night was beautiful, the bugs weren't horrible, and the kids were AWESOME in the garden. Not too much mud, lots of fun pickin', and always within eyesight and earshot. That's not even the best part.
As Abby and I were finishing up with the tomatoes, Chad and Jett brought the four-wheeler along and we all hopped on... Jett, Chad, Abby, and me, in that order. We drove around the grove, Kotah sprinting along side to her own personal cheerleaders, and headed to the tree lines behind Grandma Z's house. That's where the magic happened.
Picture a perfectly manicured grove with beautiful trees and the late summer sun beams streaming through as the sun begins to set. Then... you see them. Hundreds of monarch butterflies flying above you as you drive down the row, and you hear your little girl squeal with excitement and your little boy yell and point.
That's when I realized that I made it. I have everything I've ever wanted, and life doesn't get much better.
Here's to the fairytale:).
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Turnin' Two.
The little man turns two. TWO.
From a beautiful baby boy...
To a one year old charmer with eyes to melt anyone's heart!
And now officially a toddler.
He's a little boy on his way to manhood. Ok... I exagerate, a little, but it goes so fast! The boy is so much fun. I love to watch him explore, climb, throw, even eat dirt (sometimes). It just goes so fast... I hope I never forget
... the way he runs/gallops
...his "pitching" form
...how my heart melts when he runs yelling "Nomni, Nomni!" when I pick him up from daycare
...the feeling of his head on my shoulders when he's telling me he's ready for bed
...his giggle when his daddy wrestles with him
...his "monkey-see, monkey-do" ways whenever he's with the big sis
...the hundreds of little things that warm my heart that I can't put into words.
I wouldn't change a thing about my baby boy (except maybe get rid of the nuk). Happy birthday Jett-man!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Fantastic conversations/observations, and just general updates
This last weekend goes down as THE best experience I have shared with Abby ever.
We went to Disney Princesses on Ice!
I wish I could have captured everything on video. Abby was excited for days!! (We only bought the tickets a week ahead of time, otherwise she would have been excited for months:)). She dressed the part (princess T-shirt, Tutu, glitter lip gloss), and was a ball of contained energy. Seriously, when Abby is super excited about something, she doesn't bounce off the walls right away... she holds it all in, almost gets a little clingy, but constantly looks around, stutters a little, smiles, laughs... you know she's excited!
We walked into the Target Center, which could have been renamed toddler princess center (plus one mom totally decked out as Snow White... slightly creepy), and Abby's confusion with the mural of basketball players ("But Mooom, where are the princesses??") turned into a 1000 watt smile as soon as we saw the vendors with princess goodies. There were a few displays you could walk by with various Disney scenes, and we snapped a few pics. By this time, AJ's look of confusion started to return... like she thought this was it, this was what we had come for. But... then we took our seats, the lights dimmed, the announcer welcomed us to the show, and TINKERBELL skated out onto the rink. The look on Abby's face was the most beautiful, heartwarming, priceless picture I have ever seen. It was like watching one of her dreams come true right before her eyes, and it brought tears of absolute joy to my eyes.
She sat as her contained little bundle of energy through most of the first half... and then we saw Belle, and Abby literally jumped out of her seat, bounced around, exclaimed that her favorite princess was here, and from that point on, her butt hardly occupied her seat!
Then, the other night, I tucked her in, we sang a couple songs, and then Abby looked at me and said, "Mom, can we talk about rainbows?" A little surprised, I said "Sure!?", and she proceeded to tell me, "Because they're in the sky, and then it's raining, and they have orange and red and blue, and then the people take them out, and I don't know why. I don't know where they go. Where are the rainbows?" I'm not entirely sure how I responded, but whatever I said satisfied her, and she was asleep shortly thereafter!
Jett-man... still no words, really, but I feel like we're getting closer and closer... Rather than learn verbal skills, he is spending his down time perfecting his jump shot. He shoots at his 3.5 foot hoop from 3 feet away! It's pretty funny/amazing to watch, but our luck, he'll become a wrestler:). One of Grandma Connie's co-workers saw Jett the other day and commented on his big hands (??) and how he'll be a great swimmer.... we'll see... he won't get that genetically!
He's also a crazy, crazy boy. Climbing, jumping, running into things. Actually, not running... very rarely does he actually run or walk. It's more of a skip/gallop, depending on how fast he wants to get from point A to point B!
We are gearing up for our first legit family vacation. Florida in 2 weeks! It'll be great family time, and I'm pretty excited for the beach and the pool, not to mention sunshine, flip flops and skirts!
We went to Disney Princesses on Ice!
I wish I could have captured everything on video. Abby was excited for days!! (We only bought the tickets a week ahead of time, otherwise she would have been excited for months:)). She dressed the part (princess T-shirt, Tutu, glitter lip gloss), and was a ball of contained energy. Seriously, when Abby is super excited about something, she doesn't bounce off the walls right away... she holds it all in, almost gets a little clingy, but constantly looks around, stutters a little, smiles, laughs... you know she's excited!
We walked into the Target Center, which could have been renamed toddler princess center (plus one mom totally decked out as Snow White... slightly creepy), and Abby's confusion with the mural of basketball players ("But Mooom, where are the princesses??") turned into a 1000 watt smile as soon as we saw the vendors with princess goodies. There were a few displays you could walk by with various Disney scenes, and we snapped a few pics. By this time, AJ's look of confusion started to return... like she thought this was it, this was what we had come for. But... then we took our seats, the lights dimmed, the announcer welcomed us to the show, and TINKERBELL skated out onto the rink. The look on Abby's face was the most beautiful, heartwarming, priceless picture I have ever seen. It was like watching one of her dreams come true right before her eyes, and it brought tears of absolute joy to my eyes.
She sat as her contained little bundle of energy through most of the first half... and then we saw Belle, and Abby literally jumped out of her seat, bounced around, exclaimed that her favorite princess was here, and from that point on, her butt hardly occupied her seat!
Then, the other night, I tucked her in, we sang a couple songs, and then Abby looked at me and said, "Mom, can we talk about rainbows?" A little surprised, I said "Sure!?", and she proceeded to tell me, "Because they're in the sky, and then it's raining, and they have orange and red and blue, and then the people take them out, and I don't know why. I don't know where they go. Where are the rainbows?" I'm not entirely sure how I responded, but whatever I said satisfied her, and she was asleep shortly thereafter!
Jett-man... still no words, really, but I feel like we're getting closer and closer... Rather than learn verbal skills, he is spending his down time perfecting his jump shot. He shoots at his 3.5 foot hoop from 3 feet away! It's pretty funny/amazing to watch, but our luck, he'll become a wrestler:). One of Grandma Connie's co-workers saw Jett the other day and commented on his big hands (??) and how he'll be a great swimmer.... we'll see... he won't get that genetically!
He's also a crazy, crazy boy. Climbing, jumping, running into things. Actually, not running... very rarely does he actually run or walk. It's more of a skip/gallop, depending on how fast he wants to get from point A to point B!
We are gearing up for our first legit family vacation. Florida in 2 weeks! It'll be great family time, and I'm pretty excited for the beach and the pool, not to mention sunshine, flip flops and skirts!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
"Am I a nice girl?"
Ever since Chad and I returned from a week long vacation last Wednesday, we've been in kid-reprogram mode. Back to working on weening Jett from his nuk, back to getting Abby to listen the first time...
Jett's been ok, but Abby's been quite the handful. Lots of time outs, lots of discussions, little patience on Mommy and Daddy's part...we even missed ECFE (which she LOVES, and we haven't been to for a month due to weather/vacation) Tuesday night because she refused to eat her supper. I thought that was tough (it really broke her heart not to go) and that maaaaybe she was starting to understand the need to listen and that we had reached the peak of the problems.
Then Wednesday night happened.
Let me first say that my kids were AMAZING all day on Wednesday. We took a trip to Alex, shopped at Target AND Walmart, and I didn't feel the need to throw my arms up in surrender, leave a full cart behind, and high-tail it to the car with two screaming toddlers. Nope... my kiddos were awesome. They listened, squirmed very little, a got along fantastically almost the whole time.
But Wednesday night was a whole different story for little Abby Jo. We went to the basketball games up at UMM... made it to the second half of the girls game and planned to stay through the first half of the boys game. As soon as we walked in the doors to the gym, Abby's ears turned off. One of her best friends was there, so I figured it had more to do with the atmosphere, but just got worse and worse as the night progressed. My tipping point was when I brought Abby and her friend to the potty during the first half of the boys' game. She was done doing her stuff, and I went in the bathroom to help wipe, and the craziest freak out I've seen ensued. I mean, she was just crazy! "I'm not done, I want to lock the door, then you come in, don't wipe, I'm done, don't wipe, get out, I want to lock the door, I need to wash my hands..." please hear the high pitched, inperceivable, toddler crying/screaming in this statement of pure craziness.
So, I did something I very rarely do and spanked Abby on her bare butt. It brought her back to reality, led to quite a few tears, but, of course, did not improve her listening skills for the night, and shortly after we headed on home.
I was extremely frustrated. We pulled in the driveway, and Abby started putting up a fight again. I raised my voice with her & was very firm, which quieted her down... but as I went to carry her out of the car, she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm not naughty."
Oh man... thinking on the last few hours of the night, I wanted to clarify this for her and speak totally out of emotion. But, Jett was half asleep in his seat and I didn't want to wake him. So, I told her she had not been a good listener, which was very naughty, but that we would talk about it after I put her brother to bed.
After tucking Jett in bed and battling Abby to put on her pajamas (seriously, longest night ever!), I put her on my lap and held her close and gave her the no nonsense tone of voice, complete with eye contact:
"Abby, you are not a naughty girl, you are a good girl, and Mommy loves you very, very much. But, some of the things you did tonight were naughty things, like when you didn't listen..."
We talked about being a good girl, and what it meant to listen, and Abby really seemed to get it. It was a good way to end a long day. Then, as I was tucking her in and turning on her night light, Abby, with tears in her eyes, asked, "Mommy, am I a nice girl?"
Oh my sweet Abby Jo. Talk about a heartbreaker. I had never been so glad that I had followed the prompting in my heart, put my exhaustion and frustrations to the side, and talked with Abby about how she was a good girl, but her actions were naughty. Also, I was so thankful that Abby had actually let me hold her and listened quietly while we were talking, especially after four hours of not listening to anything anyone said! It made it a lot easier to answer her without worrying about contradicting anything I had said earlier. It was really nice to end the night with, "Yes, you are a very nice girl, Sweetheart, and I love you very much" which was received with a nod & smile from my little girl.
What a wonderful Wednesday it was, afterall.
Jett's been ok, but Abby's been quite the handful. Lots of time outs, lots of discussions, little patience on Mommy and Daddy's part...we even missed ECFE (which she LOVES, and we haven't been to for a month due to weather/vacation) Tuesday night because she refused to eat her supper. I thought that was tough (it really broke her heart not to go) and that maaaaybe she was starting to understand the need to listen and that we had reached the peak of the problems.
Then Wednesday night happened.
Let me first say that my kids were AMAZING all day on Wednesday. We took a trip to Alex, shopped at Target AND Walmart, and I didn't feel the need to throw my arms up in surrender, leave a full cart behind, and high-tail it to the car with two screaming toddlers. Nope... my kiddos were awesome. They listened, squirmed very little, a got along fantastically almost the whole time.
But Wednesday night was a whole different story for little Abby Jo. We went to the basketball games up at UMM... made it to the second half of the girls game and planned to stay through the first half of the boys game. As soon as we walked in the doors to the gym, Abby's ears turned off. One of her best friends was there, so I figured it had more to do with the atmosphere, but just got worse and worse as the night progressed. My tipping point was when I brought Abby and her friend to the potty during the first half of the boys' game. She was done doing her stuff, and I went in the bathroom to help wipe, and the craziest freak out I've seen ensued. I mean, she was just crazy! "I'm not done, I want to lock the door, then you come in, don't wipe, I'm done, don't wipe, get out, I want to lock the door, I need to wash my hands..." please hear the high pitched, inperceivable, toddler crying/screaming in this statement of pure craziness.
So, I did something I very rarely do and spanked Abby on her bare butt. It brought her back to reality, led to quite a few tears, but, of course, did not improve her listening skills for the night, and shortly after we headed on home.
I was extremely frustrated. We pulled in the driveway, and Abby started putting up a fight again. I raised my voice with her & was very firm, which quieted her down... but as I went to carry her out of the car, she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm not naughty."
Oh man... thinking on the last few hours of the night, I wanted to clarify this for her and speak totally out of emotion. But, Jett was half asleep in his seat and I didn't want to wake him. So, I told her she had not been a good listener, which was very naughty, but that we would talk about it after I put her brother to bed.
After tucking Jett in bed and battling Abby to put on her pajamas (seriously, longest night ever!), I put her on my lap and held her close and gave her the no nonsense tone of voice, complete with eye contact:
"Abby, you are not a naughty girl, you are a good girl, and Mommy loves you very, very much. But, some of the things you did tonight were naughty things, like when you didn't listen..."
We talked about being a good girl, and what it meant to listen, and Abby really seemed to get it. It was a good way to end a long day. Then, as I was tucking her in and turning on her night light, Abby, with tears in her eyes, asked, "Mommy, am I a nice girl?"
Oh my sweet Abby Jo. Talk about a heartbreaker. I had never been so glad that I had followed the prompting in my heart, put my exhaustion and frustrations to the side, and talked with Abby about how she was a good girl, but her actions were naughty. Also, I was so thankful that Abby had actually let me hold her and listened quietly while we were talking, especially after four hours of not listening to anything anyone said! It made it a lot easier to answer her without worrying about contradicting anything I had said earlier. It was really nice to end the night with, "Yes, you are a very nice girl, Sweetheart, and I love you very much" which was received with a nod & smile from my little girl.
What a wonderful Wednesday it was, afterall.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Why I believe. Part 1.
I believe because without a Creator, I have no purpose.
Do you know what it feels like to be an "accident"? I do. If you think about the fact that my parents were married in March of '83 and I was born in September of '83 (full term, mind you), it only takes a little math to realize I was not only unplanned, but that I brought on a "change of plans". This isn't uncommon, I know, but when your parents have struggled in their marriage and your mom has even gone so far to tell you that your dad is not her soul mate, that he wasn't the one she was supposed to marry, you start to question the role you played in bringing them together and even why you're here.
I thought about this often in my life, from early on and throughout most of college.
I had heard all the lines when I was growing up... God knows the hairs on my head, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, etc, but, it didn't hit home until my senior year of college when I was reading "The Purpose Driven Life" and came across Rick Warren's line:
"You were created by God and for God, and until you realize that, nothing in this world will make sense."
This statement brought all of those "lines" home for me. I was no accident. God created me. Everything I am, every trait I was given, was on purpose. I am exactly what God intended as a friend, daughter, sister, wife & mother.
And, furthermore, I was created for God. Do you see the future in that three letter word? God has a plan, a plan for me. I have a destiny, I have things I gotta do, I have races to run and the good fight to fight. I will serve a purpose for Him, the Almighty God! Little old me. Amazing.
I was in a very dark place in my life when I finally came to this realization. I know what it did for me, and my heart breaks for those who don't realize that they were created, they are purposeful, there is a reason they are here.
I am created. I am here on purpose.
Do you know what it feels like to be an "accident"? I do. If you think about the fact that my parents were married in March of '83 and I was born in September of '83 (full term, mind you), it only takes a little math to realize I was not only unplanned, but that I brought on a "change of plans". This isn't uncommon, I know, but when your parents have struggled in their marriage and your mom has even gone so far to tell you that your dad is not her soul mate, that he wasn't the one she was supposed to marry, you start to question the role you played in bringing them together and even why you're here.
I thought about this often in my life, from early on and throughout most of college.
I had heard all the lines when I was growing up... God knows the hairs on my head, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, etc, but, it didn't hit home until my senior year of college when I was reading "The Purpose Driven Life" and came across Rick Warren's line:
"You were created by God and for God, and until you realize that, nothing in this world will make sense."
This statement brought all of those "lines" home for me. I was no accident. God created me. Everything I am, every trait I was given, was on purpose. I am exactly what God intended as a friend, daughter, sister, wife & mother.
And, furthermore, I was created for God. Do you see the future in that three letter word? God has a plan, a plan for me. I have a destiny, I have things I gotta do, I have races to run and the good fight to fight. I will serve a purpose for Him, the Almighty God! Little old me. Amazing.
I was in a very dark place in my life when I finally came to this realization. I know what it did for me, and my heart breaks for those who don't realize that they were created, they are purposeful, there is a reason they are here.
I am created. I am here on purpose.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Three years ago today.
Little Miss Abby was born at 8:48 on Thursday, Jan 3. She was 5 lb, 4 oz, 19 in long and was the most beautiful creation I'd ever seen.
I remember the couple weeks leading up to her birth very well. Excitement, discomfort, anxiety, hope, and not a whole lot of patience (my first post on this blog was on Jan 2, 2008... I think my mood was pretty evident:)). But, when she decided she was ready to show up, I felt like the whole world stopped.... and in a way, it did.The world, my world, changed. The old one disappeared, and the new one seemed to turn in an entirely different direction.
This world brought new perspectives, fears, pains, joys, hopes, and a more beautiful love.
Everything was more meaningful. Everything mattered.
It's amazing how a little baby, not even six pounds, can have such a profound impact.... and even more amazing is that she continues to modify my world every single day.
I love my Abby Jo. I am so thankful for her tender heart, her motherly tendencies, her one liners, her laugh, and, yes, even her sassiness. But, most of all, I treasure her complete, absolute, genuine joy in everyday things. She is the most beautiful girl I know.
Happy Birthday to My Sweet Abby Jo! I love you!
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