Baby Love

How to Make Ava happy

Step 1: Look at her
Step 2: Smile
The End

Look who got invited back into the kitchen…

Keeping it Real: Mean Girls

Last week I read this letter:
What I Want My Daughter to Know About the Mean Girls

And like every God-fearing woman on Earth I stood up and applauded. My daughters need to hear that. However as the week went on I realized there is so much more for me to say on the issue of “mean girls”.

This post represents the hard things that I haven’t really seen represented in this whole conversation about bullying and mean girls. Bear with me, not only will this be long, it is the hardest thing I have written to date.

My Dear Daughters,

It is true. At some, most likely many points in your life you will meet a mean girl. I wish I could stop it, but I can’t. The best I can tell you is to show that person Christ-like grace, but I can’t make that easy. What I can do is give you a good reason why you should show grace.

You will be a mean girl. At some point, probably many points in your life you will hurt another of your gender in the way only females can hurt each other. Prayerfully it will be unintentional, likely there will be times it is most definitely intentional.

You should also know that I have been a mean girl. I have gossiped, slandered, excluded, eye rolled, and belittled. Oh sweet girls I wish you knew the pain and embarrassment that just writing those words causes me. I wish I could tell you the shame I still feel for those actions wether they were decades ago or sadly days ago. Some of it I maliciously did on purpose. More recently as I grow closer to the Lord the slights I’ve committed are unintentional. Truthfully this hasn’t come full circle for me. The day I have to wipe your tears for infractions against you that I myself committed I will feel the full weight of my actions. It will be a heavy weight. Don’t let the weight be so heavy on yourself.

I pray baby girls that you would ask Jesus to always how you your heart.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23

Pray for conviction and strength when you are tempted to hurt, because truthfully, it will often feel justified.
That does not make it okay. Please show others mercy where you would have them show you mercy.

Which brings me to my conclusion.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Act Justly. Be bold. Do not just stand up for what’s right for yourself. Stand up when you see meaness to others. Refuse to listen to gossip. Refuse to exclude. Reach out to those who have been hurt to help them heal, even if you think they deserved it.

Love Mercy. Love mercy because you want to be shown mercy. Yes, she did this or said that. Show her mercy. You are not perfect either. You, too are a sinner. Too easily the bullied can turn into the bully. Being a victim does not give you the right to leave a wake of victims in your path. Hurt people are the people that hurt other people. Remember that when a mean girl crosses your path. The world will tell you to fight back, to stand your ground. I tell you and the Bible tells you that Grace can heal. Show her mercy lest you turn into her.

Walk Humbly with your God. Press into God. Know Jesus well an strive to be like Him. As you do that your self importance and any perceived right you have to slight someone else will start to fade. You will learn at some point that what you thought you knew and acted on wasn’t the whole truth, it will be a hard lesson learned. Learning humility is a lifelong battle and it is hard. Primarily because to learn humility you must be humbled. Nothing is more humbling than having to apologize for being wrong, for hurting someone. Don’t be afraid to face the person you were mean to, you will be better for asking forgiveness. Again, that’s where the healing is, whether they choose to forgive or not. Humble yourself before God and man and you will find not only that you are less mean, but that people are less able to scathe you with their meanness.

Love,
Mommy

*I dedicate this post to anyone who has ever been hurt by me. I dedicate it to their mother who wiped their tears and to their daughters who will learn from it. Please know I’m standing before you, begging your forgiveness.

Poisoned

I haven’t heard word yet, but I may have developed a reputation in this small town. Yesterday I had a playdate/brunch at my house.

Which was super fun an I vowed to take tons of pics and only got this one…

And only because that sweet baby girl reminded asked me to take it.

Another side note, these things always seem to end with my kid in tears because of some injury. This week she slipped in the water she spilled and bit her lip, last week she fell off the playscape steps and broke her fall with her face.

We are officially those people. And to prove it? I’m pretty sure
I poisoned my friends and their kids. Seriously. Because If everyone hadn’t left when they did yesterday we would have cleared them out. Oh yeah. There were some majorly stinky tummy troubles. Best I can figure it has something to do with the food I cooked.

(Also, I obviously know no shame)

I’m thinking about writing a book that is about
A. How to be a poor supervisor of your child so that she gets tough.
B. How to throw a stellar playdate where you hurt kids and poison people.
C. How to lose friends by stinking up your house and making them sick.

I don’t know. Maybe I could combine all three topics? Do we see a best seller coming from this?

Spring?!?!?

In April?!?!

Lord have mercy on August…

The Ornithology Conundrum

Turns out my Bug is a bit of a naturalist. Especially in the area of ornithology (don’t worry I had to Google it too), she is obsessed with sitting at the front door and watching the birds. In fact, yesterday she sat and watched them for almost twenty minutes, which is approximately two years in toddler time.

However, we have a bit of a problem because in my idealistic attempt to be a great mom I decided I would always try to let her explore her interest, but I am TERRIFIED of birds. The particular brand of birds on our front porch are the kind that will come swooping down and peck out your eyes if you get close to their nest (okay I made the eye part up, but it seems likely).

Since Russ thinks birds are gross and I’m scared of them, would anyone like to volunteer to make a bird feeder and sit out in the backyard and bird watch with my baby?

2 Months

Hey Sweet Ava,

Your already a big two months! Your cute little cheeks are filling out and I can sit and count the rolls on your arms.

There is so much I want you to know, but it seems that much of my advice comes naturally to you. You love to make eye contact, keep doing that. Looking people in the eye lets them know you are listening, it lets them know you care. You also smile a from the heart, a genuine smile all day long. Oh sister, know this, a simple smile can change someone’s bad day. In fact your sweet smile has already turned around more than one rough day for me!

Also baby girl, you are already rolling. Gulp. That was early. Feel free to take your time hitting your milestones, mommy doesn’t mind you staying a baby a little longer one little bit.

Sister relationships can be complicated, but I want you to always know in these early days your sister loves to take care of you and your biggest smiles are always for her. Hold on to that. It will be worth it to work through the frustration that can only be caused by someone you love fiercely.

Last but certainly not least mommy and daddy love you from the bottom of our hearts!

Love,
Mommy

You Give Me Fever

I’m pretty sure Ava almost did me in; itfelt like that’s what was happening somewhere around week 16 when I was hooked up to an IV and completely drained of all fuel.

In that moment I was done. DONE.

Because pregnancy isn’t just hard on me, it’s hard on Hubs, and it’s hard in the Bug.

But now this:

(biggest smiles are always for sister)

Is what my days are full with.

And I find myself thinking,

“I love having babies, I could have another baby right now.”

*record scratch*

Wait…..What?!?!?!

I know! It’s ridiculous! The good news is my family is in the hands of a faithful God who used Ava to teach me a very important lesson about just how much control I really have over my family planning situation.

He also gave me Hubs. Also known as “The Voice of Reason”

So for right now I’ll just admit I have the fever, but wrangling these two

And waiting for baby boy to come home will keep my fever at bay…

Maybe

We All Fall Down

So this happened…

It’s a good thing we don’t have a social worker coming to reevaluate our parenting in two days…

Oh Wait!

We do.

Please pray for our homestudy update!

On a related note I would like to have it on the record that I hate that the bug took a spill and I hate that she got all scraped up. I really really do, however my Bug has been so cuddly as a result.

I am not ashamed to say ill take what I can get however I can get it. Cause let’s face it, she’s stingy with cuddles!

The World

Sometimes I wonder if he listens. We are busy and currently excessively tired.

Truth is he may not hear a lot of what I say, because I talk a lot. A lot.

But he knows me. He gets me. Better than anyone else. Last week he proved it.

Because he knew better than to get me jewelry, or flowers, or the need-to-have trend is the moment.

He knows I’m too cheap practical to enjoy something that costs a lot and doesn’t do anything.

So he got me something I could use. Something beautiful. Something I didn’t need but he knew I wanted.

He got me the world.

Because Hubs? Gets me.

MooOooOOOoooo

I tried my hardest to get a video of what I’m about to describe to you and couldn’t get the Bug to do it. She is way to interested in the camera to perform in front of the lens.

The Pioneer Woman wrote a children’s book called Charlie the Ranch Dog. In case you don’t read her blog Charlie is a Bassett Hound, and by its very nature of being a whole book about a dog it is Lily’s current favorite.

However it has caused a little confusion for my baby bug because in the book there is a cow. And (spoiler alert) Charlie chases the cow away by letting out a big ole hound dog bay. And it just so happens that one of the few decent animal noises this mommy can make is a hound dog bay, if I do say so myself.

This has resulted in a strange unification of a cow noise and a hound dog noise. Basically she bays with an Mmmmmm sound at the front of it.

She presses her lips together, throws her head back and gives a big ole high pitch discordant MooOoooOOOoooOOO that’s about a mile long.

It’s also adorable. And halrious!