Today has been hard. Really hard. No naps, a baby who is cutting a lot of teeth at once, and the sibling wars have begun. In the midst of all the madness, I had both of the girls in the bathtub letting them play to their heart's content and my heart was just filled with sweet memories of today. Nothing less than grace, our day has been full of it. Actually, every day is, but some days, the hardest ones, seem to have the greatest abundance. It does usually take a still moment, and some of these days, I don't realize our treasures until I am lying in bed rewinding all of my failed mom moments. But today, today was different and just what I needed.
I failed all day. Miserably failed. My big girl has been needing more mommy time, and my baby has just really been sad. The girls have been fighting over Every. Little. Thing. It's a growing and trying time for all of us. Even during the tears and tantrums, I am reminded of what little blessings my girls are.
Today, our little dose of grace came at our attempted nap time (we completely failed at nap). We were all piled up in my bed when Emersyn rolled over and folded her hands and said "Thank you Jesus for EE, mama, daddy, Wei, Peeps, and Lllll (that's Uncle Luke for those who don't understand "Emersyn") I love you, Jesus. Amen."
Somewhere along the way, we must have done something right.
My BABY turned 9 months old on Sunday, WHERE has the time gone? We had our well check-up yesterday, sweet baby weighed in at 20 lbs 12 oz and is 28 1/2 inches long. She is clearly not missing a meal! She was a little rockstar for me at the doctor's office, and I am in shock that at our next well check-up, I will be visiting with my 1 and 3 year old. Unreal. Completely unreal.
Our little Edyn is such a sweetheart. She absolutely adores her big sister and wants every single thing that Emersyn has. She wants her toys, her food, and she wants to run around with her. Edyn is crawling, standing, and taking little steps when she is holding on to something. She said "baby" a few nights ago while reaching for a baby doll, which happens to be her favorite toy. Unlike her sister who prefers cars and trains, Edyn always chooses babies and dolls :) She is so, incredibly sweet and mama is her favorite person, which I am treasuring while it lasts because I know it won't be forever!
Emersyn finally quit calling her sister "eck" and now refers to her as "E-E", and the whole family has adopted this nickname for her :) She has 3 teeth (two on bottom and one on top) and is a fantastic eater. She loves all fruit and will eat anything you put in front of her, and she can drink water from her straw cup. Big sister teaches her all kinds of fun things and they share such a special little friendship.
Although it is happening a little fast, I love every second of seeing this sweet baby grow up!
Amidst all of our daily physical and mental running around, this has been on my heart and mind steadily for the past couple of weeks. Babies definitely don't keep, they grown like little weeds! I have been in a joyful heartbroken state over how fast my little ones are growing up lately. I am joyful and thankful that they are healthy and growing like they should (maybe even a little too much!), but so sad that this sweet, precious time is just fleeting!
Our big girl is completely potty trained- we had about 2 days of training and that was it, she's a little rock star. Granted, she will be 3 in a few months, but I think she just had to be ready. When that time came, it was easy peasy. She has grown up so much since potty training, in so many other areas. It seems as that was our breakthrough into big girl-dom. Our baby girl, who isn't too much of a baby anymore, is crawling, pulling up, taking steps, you name it- she's into it! And, boy, has her personality blossomed- she is a go-getter!
It's as though one day they were babies, the next they were little ladies. Such sweet blessings in so many ways. I know just as quickly as these growing up days have passed, the ones in the future will fly by even faster. I'll take the madness, the fits, and the tears because I am learning tomorrow will bring more challenges with babies who are even further from their baby days :) With each day that passes, I am more and more in awe that God chose me to love and nurture these sweet girls! I sure did nothing to deserve being a mom at all, especially not to these two!
By the way- if you've been waiting for more of the "Blog Hop Wednesday" posts, let's just be real one moment. I totally skipped week #2, I couldn't get past the post to think of any more to write, then I quit getting the topics- maybe they kicked me out?! Who knows, but I am horrible with keeping up with moms who are disciplined enough to think it, blog it, and write something decent enough to present it to the world in a decent time frame. I am convinced everyone else doing this study has grown kids....FAILURE! But, I am loving the devotion :)
Last week, our baby turned EIGHT months old! I am still in disbelief, it seems like yesterday she was still baking in my belly!
Oh, she is such a joy! Her laugh is contagious :) She adores any attention from her big sister, loves pulling Bo's (the dog) ears and tail, and wants to move so badly she can hardly stand it! She can feed herself small bites of food and loves blueberries, yogurt and Cheerios. She is becoming a pretty big Elmo fan as well :) She is a doll baby, and we are so blessed to call Edyn Rose ours!
Today is my 27th birthday, and let me start by saying that I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! Love them. Everything about them. I hope one day when I am gone, my family starts some sort of special event birthday planning business in my honor :) I love celebrating my friends and family, this is the ONE day out of the year to just celebrate who you are and where you are. It's my favorite!
So, I am 27- 3 years from 30. Yikes! However, with each year closer to 30 that I get, the less scary it seems. I am loving this year already, my goal is to diminish the grey hairs that are appearing and do away with a few wrinkles from so many sleepless nights- because we don't make babies around here who like to sleep, at least at night!
Today has not been some glorious occasion, it's actually been quite the opposite, but that is my reality now and I choose to embrace and love it. I handed out more spankings than I planned on, but a certain big sister was all about bullying her baby sister today. I cleaned up accidents in the carpet- who, in their right mind, chooses to potty train during their birthday week?! here, here. No one took a nap until 4 pm, then everyone crashed. The dog was even super anxious and a little crazier than normal all day. At one point, I was drowning the madness in cake icing. We had plans to go to dinner, then everyone took that 4 pm nap, and here we are at 6:30 with one still napping. I am going call grace on that one, I had a feeling two kids at a restaurant with only two adults could have gotten ugly :)
Even with all the madness and potty praises of the day, today has been beautiful. I am reminded that in my 27 years I have been SO blessed and loved. My husband saved the day and picked up a great dinner, so I still didn't have to cook, and the late naps gave me a chance to catch up on some projects. It's a crazy, beautiful life over here and I wouldn't have it any other day. Here's to 28 :)
I have started an online bible study through Proverbs 31 ministries and Lysa TerKeurst's book Am I Messing Up My Kids. Something, I think, crosses my mind daily :) Each Wednesday is an opportunity for a little blog post :) This weeks topic is "Being a Mom is Tough". Yes, duh.
Here I am in my mothering journey- I have two baby girls, one is 2 1/2 and the other will be 8 months old next week (and I STILL have not written her 7 month blog- it's coming up next, I swear!). Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever done. Up until my mom journey, my hardest experience was running the Boston marathon with a quarter size blister on my toe and practically no training- ha, I know. No comparison. Right now, we are trying to convince our 2 1/2 year old she needs to potty train while she hasn't a care in the world about it :) she has the sweetest, yet extremely strong willed, spirit. She marches to her own beat and we know, she will change the world one day! Our 8 month old is so sweet and so rotten. She loves to eat (eh, nurse) all day long. Some mornings, on our runs, we have to stop on the trail for a snack. She's my fifth appendage, and that's ok! Our days are crazy, we have no routine and try to roll with what each day brings. Some days that even means no naps- and those days are rough! Our goal is to love and show Christ's love to our babies. Hopefully not being potty trained at 2 1/2 and not ever having a bottle at 8 months is not messing them up :)
I'm excited for this little study. Every word Lysa speaks or writes is always so perfect and reassuring. Some days I wish I could high five her! If you are interested in the study, you can purchase the Kindle edition of the book from Amazon and start reading today, then hop over to proverbs31ministries.org to sign up. Such encouraging women!!
Almost a month ago we celebrated 7 months with our baby girl! I've been too busy getting all of her loving to update her progress here :) Oh, she is such a joy!! She has one big girl tooth and we are waiting on #2. She is starting to pull up and trying to crawl with all of her being. If she gets knocked over, she acts like a turtle on it's back- she hates it! She is babbling and giggling all of the time. She loves to sit and play with toys with her big sister. She is still not a big fan of solid food besides yogurt and Cheerios but is making some progress :) hopefully our new teeth will open up more options! Emersyn is her favorite person, and if Em could feed her she would have no need for anyone else :) We are loving every second watching our sweet girl grow! It's happening a little too quickly, but we are so thankful for her health and happiness! We love you, Edyn Rose!
