Ballerina Baby?

Yes, I secretly hope there is a dancer just waiting to emerge.

I hate big bugs...ain't no lie.

I don't know why these things seem to always happen to me...

Wednesday night, as I was nursing Nora around 11pm, I felt something crawling on my arm.... Now, let me tell you something you may not know about SC. Their bugs are on some serious steroids! They are HUGE! And, they like to come in my bathroom. But, on my arm...that is just beyond me. So I look down to see a 5 inch long roach crawling up my arm. I am not exaggerating one bit. The first time I saw one of these after we moved here I flipped out. So, it crawled to the back of the rocking chair and I jumped up while nursing Nora, who was now fast asleep, and ran out of the room to get Seth. When we went back in, we couldn't find the darn thing.

I don't know about you...but bugs on my arm, just gross me out. GIANT ROACHES from horror movies are way worse. We removed things from under the bed, looked behind furniture and scoured that room. I was not going to go to bed with that thing alive. Alas, the clock struck 12 and there was no bug to be seen. So, we went to bed. I wore my winter pj's in an attempt to cover myself, but it just didn't do anything for my psyche. I was freaking out. I must have fallen asleep at some point (the last I saw the clock it was after 2am), between worrying about roaches getting me, sweating profusely, and getting up with Nora who was crying a lot and coming down with a cold.

The next morning Nora woke up at 6:30 and I was only starting to enjoy the first half of my required sleep. I got her up, nursed her and put her in bed with me. She sat up grinning, coughed, and threw up her entire stomach contents on my face and pillow. Then, she started crying, and cried off and on for most of the morning. We took her to the Dr. to find out that she has severe ear infections in both ears. Once we gave her numbing ear drops she finally relaxed a little.

So, yesterday was just crazy to say the least. And, I kept shaking out clothes and looking for that stupid roach all day, half hoping to find it and half freaking out and wondering what I would do if I did. So far, we've had about 5 of these things in our apartment, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I have been the one to happen upon them. Then, last night, around 10:30, I walked into our bathroom and there it was on the wall....and it was HUGE. The biggest one yet. And, on the opposite wall was it's little sidekick, almost as huge, but not as mean. I ran out to find my husband, shoved him in the bathroom, closed the door, and said, "You are not coming out until both of those things are dead." How nice of me, huh? Seth, a.k.a. Roach Killer Extraordinaire, is now my hero.

The things are dead, but I seriously cannot stop shaking out cushions, tiptoeing into the bathroom, taping my mouth shut at night (okay, not true), and freaking out every time I nurse my baby. I now must wean my child, or experience panic attacks for the next several months.

P.S. This is even worse than passing a kidney stone (no idea why in the world I had one unless they are attributed to stress) on my birthday less than 2 weeks ago. Yes, sadly, another true story. I'm 26 now. And I feel old. 

So He Says...

Driving by the lake...
"We saw boobies there yesterday!" (buoys)

After telling Aidan that he hurt Nora's feelings....
"I'm sad too, Mama. I hurt my feelings on the chair."

Touching my chest (completely covered)...
"I'm touching your milk."

"I want to go to the airport and go to South Carolina." (He keeps getting confused about whether he's in Kansas or SC)

Coming out of the bathroom at a run, pulling his underwear up, tripping, standing up and exclaiming....
"I'm the masked retriever." (from Backyardigans)

Our little beach va-cay

So, we went to the beach several weeks ago and I didn't really ever write about our time there.

First off, we were so excited that our friends, the Spykerman's, who were coming our way for vacation, invited us to tag along with them for a few days to Sunset Beach, NC (just north of Myrtle Beach).

We left on Saturday, May 7th  and came home on Wednesday afternoon. It was a blast!

Nora ate sand about a million times, loved crawling towards the waves, and didn't even mind the cold water. Aidan ran right in the water and pretty much stayed there the whole time. He LOVED it!

We mostly just relaxed (as much as you can with kids), enjoyed the sun, enjoyed our friends, had fun playing games and talking after the kids went to bed at night, read good books, went for ice cream in the rain, built sand castles, flew kites, took walks, collected sea shells, and ate plenty of snacks. :)

 Davis on the porch swing at our beach house

Morning nap on the beach

 Getting ice cream (sweet Davis)

 Evening walk on the beach

Daddy and daughter (love this!)

Flying kites (Aidan's new favorite thing)

THIS IS MY FAVORITE!

Reality Check.

Sometimes I go back and read my past entries and smile, thinking to myself how lovely everything seems (except for those random Ican'tstandmychildanylonger posts).

The reality with me is this...

I have so far to come in learning to trust the Lord. And, I really stink at it most days.

The biggest thing going on in life besides the fact that I am still not getting consistent sleep at night is the fact that our house has still NOT SOLD. Nada, nothing, blah, blah, blah. This is the greatest frustration of my daily life.

Now, I have wavered back and forth between feeling hopeful, trusting, and confident in the Lord's provision regardless the outcome.....and feeling mad, frustrated, and absolutely hopeless. If it is not one extreme it seems to be the other.

You see folks...this decision to move was HUGE for us. It was also not easily made. We were kinda stuck financially and the promotion was really great...but the move was the controversial issue.

So, here we sit. 7 months later. We moved here and I just knew that God would provide a buyer soon after....but nope, that didn't happen. And, I don't handle things well when they don't go according to the plan...you know, the plan, the one that I have for my life. Can't God just do what I want? I mean, come one now, it seems perfectly reasonable... Wouldn't He want to remove this HUGE stressor? We have been struggling as we pay both a mortgage and rent, have one car, live in a small apartment that we obviously have outgrown... BUT that really doesn't matter.

The fact that the house selling pretty much allows me to feel like I can't start living my life here, does not mean that I can't start living, growing, and learning what God wants me too. I hate feeling stuck, but I've allowed myself to get really stuck. Because I feel stuck financially, and out of control because of the huge unknown of the house situation, I feel like I am stuck between a mountain and mountain and have thrown up my hands and started to wallow in self-pity.

REALITY CHECK.

My life might be made a whole ton of a lot simpler if the house sells. We may just be able to make future decision regarding a car, what to do when our lease is up in a couple months, preschool etc...We also might feel a LOT more freedom financially.

These are not Kingdom things. These are temporal. They have no weight in eternity. But, I am so caught up in them at times, I can't seem to get my head straight.

And then I hear about my friend's 4 month old baby that has cancer, or see the devastation of tornadoes, or hear about house fires....and I know my situation is lovely in comparison. I can deal with this. I can respond to the Lord and focus on TODAY. I don't need to constantly wonder and worry about tomorrow. I don't need to know the when. Abraham waited years for God's promise of a son. But God always makes good on His promises.

Well, there's my little soapbox...

Just needed to preach to myself a little bit there.

Stinkin' Cuteness

Zoo Day {5.18.11}

It was a gorgeous day for going to the zoo with friends.

 Aidan doing the "monkey dance"

 Aidan and Annika-sweet little friends

The babies 

(this is from another day when we took a walk together, but I forgot to snap a pic of them today)

So He Says...

"Do you like my big sticker?"

{Love}

Can I just say that I am loving my new necklace my hubby gave me for Mother's Day.....

8 Months

Nora,

You are now 8 months old and I am only 6 days late in writing this. Let's just say that things have been a little busy lately. You turned 8 months old while we were on vacation to the beach and we are still trying to recover from said vacation.

You are changing every day. You are a fast crawler and you love to explore the entire apartment. Your favorite places to go are under the kitchen table and in the bathroom (when the opportunity arises). You can now pull up to standing very well and often will hold on with just one hand. You aren't "cruising" yet, but you can take a few steps along things if you really want. I am sure that you will be walking in just a couple of months.

You are eating new foods all the time. You had pancakes for the first time this month and LOVED them. You will eat bites of anything (even ice cream-I know, I am a bad mom) and you are so offended if we eat in front of you without offering you anything. You fuss for food more than anything else. You still love to nurse and are still waking up in the night to eat. Blah! The biggest reason for that has been because of teething, so once you get those top four teeth in, we are going to let you cry it out.

Speaking of teeth, you just cut your third tooth yesterday and have 3 more trying to break through as I write this. You seem to be in quite a lot of pain at night and wake often to be comforted.

You are a snuggler. You love to be held, rocked, sung to, patted, and shushed. But, you also can put yourself to sleep when need be. You just developed a love for receiving blankets and that is what you cuddle with at night and naptime. I love not being the only "pacifier" anymore. You have stopped nursing to sleep as frequently, which is nice, but you still find it very comforting to cuddle and nurse when you are tired, not feeling well, or hurt.

You are trying to communicate more and more and are adding lots of new sounds to your babbling. There have been no real words yet, but I am sure you will start talking soon. You also make this hilarious face by scrunching up your nose and breathing in and out of it really loudly. You do this when you are excited....which is actually pretty often.

You are still extremely content. You love to play and are very happy to play by yourself. You are rarely fussy unless you have a legitimate need. You are constantly happy and smiling and easy going. I love that about you. You are flexible with your nap schedule and so busy that you can go hours without sleeping and not make one fuss.

You are napping twice a day and sleeping about 11-12 hours at night (still waking anywhere from 0-3 times). I wish your nighttime sleep was more consistent, but I know that it will come in time and that you are waking because your mouth hurts.

You visited the beach for the first time this month and you loved the water and sand. You ate sand about 10 times in a row and didn't even act like it mattered to you one bit. You would crawl right to the water when we let you down and you didn't mind if the waves crashed in your face. It was great.

Nora, you are a delight. You have been such a wonderful addition to our family and I am so grateful to be your Momma.

Love,

Mom

Back-Tracking

April seemed to fly by for us and I didn't do a very good job documenting things as they happened. So, here's a little back-tracking to keep up with what really happened last month.

~The boy turned 3...and got his promised guitar cake.

Unfortunately, this sleep-deprived Momma must have forgotten to put in all the ingredients and the cake turned out super dense....yummy, but dense. So, kinda a flop in the cake department. I seriously threw most of it out after the initial tasting, but Aidan was thrilled about it, so I guess I scored there. Hey, there's always next year, right?

~Nora ended up being diagnosed with a double ear infection after the b-day party adventure/cake flop day (speaking of sleep deprivation).

~We went to a nearby church for a fun time bouncing on inflatables, egg hunting, etc... It was nice. 

~The kids were cute...some of the time.

Okay, pretty cute. Pretty naughty too, but gotta love them.

~Aidan had a big fall on Easter Sunday that left him looking like this:

He really hated the fat lip at first and cried for us to "take it off." Over the course of the next few days it looked worse with huge scabs and such. One of his front teeth got a little loose and is now grey, but we are hoping it hangs in there for awhile longer.

And that pretty much sums up some of the things that got lost along the way.

Happy Thursday....which feels like Monday to me because we just got back from the beach last night.

Mother's Day 2011

Sunset Beach, NC