Gracie Girl,
It's almost 10:30 and I am sitting here alone in the house while Jean is next door helping my mom wrap Joey's big brother presents and your father has disappeared for a while wrapping up some last minute things. You are twisting yourself around like you do. The show from the outside of my tummy is impressive and it's nothing less than amazing to think that the show on the inside stars a real baby who is grown enough to meet the world tomorrow morning. You have been so well behaved and such an easy baby to carry once the morning sickness went away. I have loved holding you for the last nine months.
Words fail me tonight. It is surreal to know that your daughter will be born in less than twelve hours. Having a date and time is a unique experience and one we have not had before. We cannot wait to meet you tomorrow, to watch you reveal yourself to the world. We all know you are coming, you have a name and a personality, and a bed set up in our living room yet you are still such a mystery. What color hair will you have? Will you be easy like your brother or give us a run for our money? How big will you be and who will you become?
Whoever you are Grace, we love you already and this is the miracle of parenthood. You are the perfect one for us.
Many bows are waiting to situate themselves on your sweet little head. Please do Mommy a favor and come out with lots of hair :o)
See you tomorrow little one.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Buckle My Shoe and UmBaBas
Easily distracted but doing One Two Buckle My Shoe :o)
Some of my favorite Joey mispronunciations :o)
In the last two months our boy has more than doubled his vocabulary. This has been so much fun and incredible to watch. I counted today and could list 210 words he can now say (at 22 months old) .. and I know I forgot some. His pronunciation is poor on some words and sometimes I need to interpret what he is saying for other people, but I think this is pretty typical for his age. I love being his interpreter and knowing just what his little voice is saying :o).
Monday, June 6, 2011
One Month Today
Our big baby will hold our little baby
I will watch my husband lay eyes on his daughter
There will be little feet with frilly socks
We will answer the question of whether you will be blonde like your brother or have dark hair like us
Our hearts will double .. again
....One month (or less) from today
I will watch my husband lay eyes on his daughter
There will be little feet with frilly socks
We will answer the question of whether you will be blonde like your brother or have dark hair like us
Our hearts will double .. again
....One month (or less) from today
We're waiting for you Gracie Girl
Sunday, June 5, 2011
A Battle of Wills
Last night marked a first for me and Joey. I write this for myself, because really Joe and I are on our first go around here and I'll probably like to look back and this later and see how we change.. or maybe how we don't. We had a showdown last night in our house. It was over a tiny piece of potato. I said Joey had to eat it, he refused.
Really who cares about a tiny piece of potato? I didn't, but Joey would only eat the sausage out of all the things he was being offered for dinner. Joe asked if I cared and I didn't, it was late, he was eating something that didn't fall under the same category as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, but then I committed the fatal flaw. I clearly stated to Joey that "If he ate that little piece of potato, then he could be finished and snuggle with Mommy and have some milk." And he refused. Ugh. I had made my bed.
Before Joey was born, even before he was conceived, Joe and I talked at great length about the guidelines and overarching ideas we felt should shape our parenting. I'm sure these things are different for everyone but the place we want to strive from in all things regarding our parenting is rooted in a small number of jointly held goals and beliefs.
We agreed that we would strive to make our marriage our life's priority. Together, within our marriage, of course our children are certainly our area of greatest focus and joy. However, we will work to make sure that we don't unwittingly allow our children to take priority over our marriage itself. We want them to feel secure in the love and relationship their mother and father share. Sometimes we fail at this, but overall so far I am proud to say that I think we have held to this well.
We agreed that education and learning is of ultimate importance.
We agreed that barring a situation we feel is abusive, in times of discipline, our unilateral approach would be to provide a united front. Everyone makes mistakes. Even if we don't fully agree with the consequences being assessed by the other parent, for us, that will be a topic of conversation for after our children are in bed. We will work it out between ourselves in private not in front of the children. Neither one of us wants to undermine the other's authority.
We agreed that, at least while our children are young, we want them to obey us. As in, what we say is the final word and that is the end of the discussion. This does not mean we are opposed to explaining things to them, it is more to say that we do not believe that their choice to obey should rely on a rationalization that satisfies them.
.... Dun Dun Dunnnnn and then our child turns 22 months and I say eat this potato and he says no and an hour later .... I'm sticking to it and he's still saying no .... welcome to life . Ha!
We agreed that our job is to love and support and guide together, at all times, in the best way we know how.
That's all we've got folks. Five things that we really believe, but we're so incredibly lucky that both of us truly believe them. I probably learned more than Joey did last night (as should be the case since I'm 28 and he's 1, ha).
You better believe I'll be picking my battles with a little more thought; I'll be more careful about what ultimatums and conditional statements I throw out there. I don't mind sticking my ground, but I didn't really care about the potato. Once I said it though, I just couldn't go back. I can work on that.
I learned that I am good at keeping my cool. I was proud that I did not raise my voice or let it turn angry even once. This is not to say I never raise my voice. I do. But this was not a situation that was dangerous and I didn't want Joey to feel scared or that I was angry, in situations such as this I just want him to realize what I say is what must happen. I still love him, I'm not mad, but what must be must be and I will wait.
I found myself literally thanking God that Joe is my husband while he calmly watched baseball as this was going on and smoothly inserted himself when Joey asked for him, saying nothing more to Joey than reiterating what I was telling him. I asked him if he wanted me to give in and he laughed and said he was pretty sure Joey was not going to give in. We talked about it in the living room after Joey told us both he wanted to be left alone in the kitchen in his high chair (Ha!) and he agreed we were both digging our heals in, there was no reason he could not eat the potato and if I wanted to fight it out he would support me in any way he could.
My marriage is my greatest proof on earth of God's existence. It seriously amazes me all the time that I am married to Joe. Out of all the people on earth, how do you find someone who is perfect for you? How does it work that that person lives in a spot that allows your lives to collide so you can even meet? It just doesn't seem that it should be possible.
Really who cares about a tiny piece of potato? I didn't, but Joey would only eat the sausage out of all the things he was being offered for dinner. Joe asked if I cared and I didn't, it was late, he was eating something that didn't fall under the same category as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, but then I committed the fatal flaw. I clearly stated to Joey that "If he ate that little piece of potato, then he could be finished and snuggle with Mommy and have some milk." And he refused. Ugh. I had made my bed.
Before Joey was born, even before he was conceived, Joe and I talked at great length about the guidelines and overarching ideas we felt should shape our parenting. I'm sure these things are different for everyone but the place we want to strive from in all things regarding our parenting is rooted in a small number of jointly held goals and beliefs.
We agreed that we would strive to make our marriage our life's priority. Together, within our marriage, of course our children are certainly our area of greatest focus and joy. However, we will work to make sure that we don't unwittingly allow our children to take priority over our marriage itself. We want them to feel secure in the love and relationship their mother and father share. Sometimes we fail at this, but overall so far I am proud to say that I think we have held to this well.
We agreed that education and learning is of ultimate importance.
We agreed that barring a situation we feel is abusive, in times of discipline, our unilateral approach would be to provide a united front. Everyone makes mistakes. Even if we don't fully agree with the consequences being assessed by the other parent, for us, that will be a topic of conversation for after our children are in bed. We will work it out between ourselves in private not in front of the children. Neither one of us wants to undermine the other's authority.
We agreed that, at least while our children are young, we want them to obey us. As in, what we say is the final word and that is the end of the discussion. This does not mean we are opposed to explaining things to them, it is more to say that we do not believe that their choice to obey should rely on a rationalization that satisfies them.
.... Dun Dun Dunnnnn and then our child turns 22 months and I say eat this potato and he says no and an hour later .... I'm sticking to it and he's still saying no .... welcome to life . Ha!
We agreed that our job is to love and support and guide together, at all times, in the best way we know how.
That's all we've got folks. Five things that we really believe, but we're so incredibly lucky that both of us truly believe them. I probably learned more than Joey did last night (as should be the case since I'm 28 and he's 1, ha).
You better believe I'll be picking my battles with a little more thought; I'll be more careful about what ultimatums and conditional statements I throw out there. I don't mind sticking my ground, but I didn't really care about the potato. Once I said it though, I just couldn't go back. I can work on that.
I learned that I am good at keeping my cool. I was proud that I did not raise my voice or let it turn angry even once. This is not to say I never raise my voice. I do. But this was not a situation that was dangerous and I didn't want Joey to feel scared or that I was angry, in situations such as this I just want him to realize what I say is what must happen. I still love him, I'm not mad, but what must be must be and I will wait.
I found myself literally thanking God that Joe is my husband while he calmly watched baseball as this was going on and smoothly inserted himself when Joey asked for him, saying nothing more to Joey than reiterating what I was telling him. I asked him if he wanted me to give in and he laughed and said he was pretty sure Joey was not going to give in. We talked about it in the living room after Joey told us both he wanted to be left alone in the kitchen in his high chair (Ha!) and he agreed we were both digging our heals in, there was no reason he could not eat the potato and if I wanted to fight it out he would support me in any way he could.
My marriage is my greatest proof on earth of God's existence. It seriously amazes me all the time that I am married to Joe. Out of all the people on earth, how do you find someone who is perfect for you? How does it work that that person lives in a spot that allows your lives to collide so you can even meet? It just doesn't seem that it should be possible.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wecome to SUMMER!
We have been loving the weather lately!
The grill is out, we've made some visits to the park, and Joey has been benefiting from having a Mommy who is pregnant when it's hot.
Translation: we make family trips for ice cream while I convince his father that is doesn't matter if we spoil his appetite and he has ice cream for dinner every now and then. Ha!
Today we moved J's quad from its residence in his playroom to the outside.
We've encouraged him to ride it all winter in order to build his confidence.
He's not very good at steering or stopping.
When he was little and more unaware he loved it.
As he got older and crashed a couple times and got stuck, sometimes he would get nervous and need encouragement.
We didn't want him to become reluctant.
Obviously, we had nothing to worry about! Ha!
Joey LOVED having so much space to ride and ride his "Voom Voom."
He kept looking back at us as we watching him and yelling out "Oh Nan! Oh Nan!" (Oh Man!) in excitement.
"Oh Man" is his newest expression, we're not sure where he got it but he uses it in context perfectly and it is so funny!
I know we are going to love our girl, we already do, but boys are SO. MUCH. FUN.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Treasures
A couple months ago we were visiting Joe's grandmother and I noticed a brightly colored blanket peeking out from a basket she had tucked behind her chair. It was a blanket she was making for her husband who had newly moved into a nursing home. I loved it. It was so colorful and happy yet so old-fashioned at the same time.
This is Joey pretending he's sleeping. Convincing isn't it?
On our ride home Joe told me about how his grandmother had made him the same type of blanket when he was little.
It was his favorite blanket.
We decided to ask her to make them for our children.
She said yes and so we picked out colors that would match their room and measured their beds.
Their blankets will be mostly the same except where his is dark green and brown, hers will be pink and purple.
Two days ago she called to tell us Joey's was finished, we went to pick it up today.
These pictures are from the day Joey got his blanket made by the hands of his great grandmother.
It's perfect.
Some things in life are more than just things.
These pictures are from the day Joey got his blanket made by the hands of his great grandmother. It's perfect.
Some things in life are more than just things.
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