Just Abbie

I have no idea where to begin on our almost 4-year old first born. The words that I say or the picture I paint of her could never compare to her in real life. She is spirited, strong-willed, independent, energetic, a mile a minute, particular – “Well, she’s three, Shannon”, you might say. But trust me. I’ve been around other 3-year olds, and never ever in my life have I experienced one quite like Abbie. She throws us for a loop. She can brighten your day in the blink of an eye, but sometimes if we allow it, she can cause Wes and I to second guess our parenting skills, to throw our hands up in the air and say I have no idea what to do with her! Honestly the best thing I can do is pray. Cliché, I know. But I promise you sometimes I feel like it’s the only thing that might get me through. I pray for grace. For her and for me. I pray for patience. I pray that I can be the kind of parent she needs me to be, because I don’t just want to be a good parent. I want to be a good parent to her. I want to build her up and encourage her to keep her spunk and not bury it away somewhere. I know it will be a positive trait at some point, when she can really understand and grasp her feelings, and Wes and I can understand what on earth she needs from us. But in the meantime I will continue to pray. And say “God, help me to raise Abbie to be who You want her to be.” With an emphasis on “GOD HELP ME!!”

Stuff

We are coming upon night 4 of sleep training Henry....i.e, letting him cry. This goes against everything in my being but I'm tired. He is waking up more and sleeping less so I have to do something. Last night was pretty bad, but I have heard it takes 3 nights - night 2 he never woke up at all, so I actually thought he got it after just one night, but I was wrong. Anyways, we'll see how it goes tonight.

He now has 4 teeth, is almost 10 months old, weighs about 21 lbs, and he had his first ever ear infection two weeks ago. IT.WAS.HORRIBLE. Abbie has never had one so this was my first experience, and I never knew how bad they were. His temp went up to 103.5 at one point and I was very close to taking him to the ER. Fevers scare me -I am not familiar with them. Again, because Abbie has never had anything over about 100. Thankfully some motrin was able to bring it down, but I was definitely scared there for a few minutes.

I'm ready for spring. Even though this winter has been very mild, I'm just ready for longer days, and also spring means Easter, the kids birthdays, and just fun outside.

I got to go out with some girlfriends the other night. It was fun to get out even though at 9 I was yawning and having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

And Wes and I got to go on a date last weekend. We had a wonderful dinner at a steakhouse in Buckhead.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to sleep for a few minutes!

Now I know...

How some Mom's get older and get to a point where they have no friends, no hobbies or interests of their own. I think it's hard for women, especially Mom's, to get so wrapped up in taking care of your kids that you forget who you are. Now this is not about doing stuff for yourself and all that. I believe our kids need to come first as much as possible, especially when they are young, but every now and then letting someone else take the reins and getting out of the house and doing something you enjoy. This has been tough for me lately. I feel like I have friends, but they all have kids, and the chances of us both being able to get out on the same day is slim to none. Then I feel guilty, then there's the nursing that gets in the way...It's just hard sometimes. I have truly loved nursing both my kids, but I must say part of me is looking forward to being done with it so I can leave Henry for more than a couple hours and not have to pump, and also do what was one of my more favorite things before I had him, and that is running. It is a huge stress reliever for me and something that doesn't take a lot of time. I just really enjoy it, so I can't wait to get back into it, run some races, find friends here to run with, and just have something that I enjoy doing for me. I'm a Mom first, but I'm also still me, and I don't want to lose that.

Need to blog - an 8-month update on Henry

Before I let another day pass, I need to do an update on our sweet second-born, Henry! He was 8 months on the 6th, and is long overdue for an update. Here is what's going on with our little monkey...

He just started crawling about two weeks ago. He is so fast already, and is into everything! Computer cords are a favorite, light sockets, the fireplace, dog food - you know, anything he's not supposed to have. He could be completely surrounded by toys, but he wants something off limits.

He is also pulling up on everything, including his crib and the couch. And he's trying to climb up the stairs already too, but I haven't really allowed him to go very far with that.

He has two bottom teeth, and I'm pretty sure more will be coming soon.

He yells and babbles and tries to talk all the time - babababa, dadadada, etc. Of course no mamamama!

He drinks my milk 4-5 times a day, and has two solid food meals a day. He's tried puffs recently, and loves them, but no other table food yet.

He takes two naps a day usually, and goes to bed between 6:30 and 7. He wakes up once a night to eat, then wakes up for the day around 5:30. Yes, it's early!

He is such a wonderful addition to our family - it's so fun to watch him grow and change. The last few months have just flown by and his 1st birthday will be here before we know it! Crazy!

Oh what a year it's been! So much has happened since January 2011, and so much was unknown to us at that time. We have both gotten new jobs, had a sweet little baby boy, and moved - not in that order, but almost! It's been a whirlwind, with moving literally one week after Henry's birth. We could not have done it without our family, there is no doubt, but all the glory goes to God, who has been so faithful to us, to provide every need and even desire of our hearts this year! I remember thinking how on earth is everything going to fall into place? But it has, it truly has, and I am so thankful.

So looking ahead to 2012 - Henry will be celebrating his first birthday in May, and Abbie will be turning four! Wes and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage, and then Abbie will start pre-K in the fall....and I'm sure we'll go on some vacations here and there, the first one being a trip for me and the kids to Florida. We will try to sell our house (again) in NC, and probably renew our rental contract on the house here in Atlanta.

It's been a great year for our family, and I hope it's been for yours as well. Happy 2012 everyone!

Checking In

Now before we go any further, this post is not going to be me "checking in" with you all, my readers, all 2 of them ( : Nope, it's about Facebook, and "Checking in". You know, the posts you see from someone's smart phone that says "So and So checked in at So and So with So and So". It's taken me a while to get used to these posts from my Facebook friends. I have to admit there have been times when I've seen them and been a little upset, jealous, whatever you want to call it, like wait a minute, she's where with who? And why wasn't I invited? I mean, if I had this function on my phone and used it, I think I might be a little cautious sometimes to check in certain places because I wouldn't want someone to feel left out - you know what I mean? But really, what I wanted to say, was HOLY MOLY, I have this friend on Facebook that I'm considering de-friending, one because to be honest, when he sent me a friend request I had no idea who he was, and had to look at our mutual friends to even somewhat remember him, and two, well he's getting a little out of hand with this whole checking in thing. Yesterday, I guess he was on a trip from Chattanooga to Atlanta. How did I know this? Well, he checked in at every possible place he could, from the BP station to scenic overlooks!! I mean really? There were like 10 places in a period of about two hours. I like knowing where people are sometimes - like I said, I've gotten used to it, but that is ridiculous! I really don't want to be unkind, but why would someone check in at every stop? Ok, I just had to vent a minute about this. I know some days I feel like I'm addicted to Facebook, and maybe I do have a slight problem - I like it, what can I say. But please tell me if I'm an annoying Facebook friend -like I tell you how many times I go to the bathroom a day, or when I'm grocery shopping at Publix, and what aisle I'm on. Ahhh, modern technology. Sometimes it can provide a little too much information into our private lives, wouldn't you agree??

I need to tell you this humorous story before I forget. I think I blogged last time about how the pediatrician told me the reason Henry was waking up (most likely, because we can't really know for sure) was not because he was hungry but because I was feeding him when he did wake up. So about a week or so ago, I got brave and decided to try not to feed him when he woke. Well, he woke up a little earlier than usual, around 11pm, so I really knew there was no way he could be hungry, but anyways, that's besides the point. I went up to his room, and resisting the urge to pick him up, patted him on the back a few times and said "It's ok, Henry, Mommy's here." Well he didn't stop crying. So I walked away for a minute or so and tried again. Still crying. About a minute later, I hear Wes coming up the stairs. He comes in and asks me what I'm doing (not in bad way). I explained to him that I was just trying to see if Henry would go back to sleep without me feeding him. Henry is still crying at this point, and getting more and more mad. Then Wes says maybe he should just pick him up and rock him a little bit. I knew that was the end of my experiment right there....Wes rocked him, he continued to cry, I went downstairs, came back up, and Wes said he couldn't handle it, that he wanted me to just feed him...so I did. And that is our version of "sleep training". The end.