Time Marches On

I know every mother out there reading this will relate. There are many days, far too many to count, when I find myself overwhelmed. Keeping a house clean (for those of you who truly know me, you know this is no simple task). Taking care of the hair that two dogs leave and trying to make a house clean enough to appear no dogs live here can be quite exhausting. Dishes pile up. Laundry multiplies. Groceries need to be restocked. Meals planned and made. Bathrooms cleaned (I prefer this several times a week, but yet that doesn't always happen). Toys picked up, the list goes on and on.

I have learned over this past year to let some things go. But, this week in particular I have been overwhelmed with one thought. Time marches on; whether I'd like it to or not. Ady has been experiencing some serious "mommy clingy" issues. I wish I could tell you there are times she will sit contently apart from me, but rarely does that happen. I was researching online to see if this was common (which by the way, is, between 14-18 months). And, one mom had posted "enjoy it now. Someday she'll be running from you." I lost it.


I realized that what breaks my heart now are things that I silently wished away previously. Like the nights I wished for sleep, and prayed she would just sleep through the night. Oh, how I miss the tenderness of those late nights. Or the times I couldn't wait for her to be mobile. Or the times I wished she would learn to eat independently. I've observed that this baby I couldn't wait to watch grow up, grew up right before my eyes. And my heart is heavy. Please know that I enjoy in more ways than I'll ever be able to express into words, the time I spend with her. And while I look forward to milestones she will experience, I have learned the hard way it just happens way, way too fast.

This baby, this 6 lb 4 oz baby, has become a stranger to me.


How did it happen? And how can I make it slow down? I heard this last week and it struck a chord with me: " In the history of man, there has never been an epitaph that read, 'she was great at keeping home,' but there are 'great mother' and loving wife." So, I'm no longer sweating the small stuff. Because, y'all, it's all small stuff.

My job is to prepare her for heaven. Have you ever truly thought about that in great detail? I heard this today, from the book Intentional Parenting:

"we must recognize that a few hours a week of consumer-oriented church events cannot successfully compete for the hearts of young people if those hearts are not being attended to spiritually in the home. The spiritual fates of children must be placed as a matter of primary importance back into the hands of the people who have the greatest opportunity to influence them for the Kingdom of God- their parents."

Do I want Ady to look back on her life and think the most important thing is to complete a to do list? Or do I want her to remember seeing her mother drop to her knees each morning with a Bible, pen, and paper in hand? You see, what I feel many Christians today do is complete a "to do list" of church. Go on Sunday, check. Donate things to the poor around Christmas, check. But, if my lifestyle is not uncomfortable, then I'm not doing what God has asked of me. You see, Ady needs to witness what I do, what we do, with our money. It's really not our money. Where we spend our money each month will show where our value is. Do we value giving God back what is already His? I am convicted this week that Ady needs to witness a mother that is always like Jesus. Because what she watches me do will say a lot more to her precious little mind than what I say to her will.

Last week I was eating some sun chips and dipping them in a hummus dip. I had finished the dip and put the top back on it before throwing it out. She was sitting in my lap and I watched her reach her hand in the chip bag and take her chip over the top and beat it up and down, as if she were dipping it. Just as I had previously done. I realized, she is watching; really watching. Every second counts. It is my responsibility to set an example for her in truth and love. To love people I don't really want to love. To show her how to love people who have deeply hurt me. I am learning so much more about how to love like Jesus now that I have a daughter whom I am raising to hopefully one day come to accept Him as her Savior.

As many of you know, conceiving children is not our "forte", so to speak. It doesn't come simple for us, not the old fashioned way, not the way it is "supposed" to be. My deep, deep desire is to have more. Yet, I serve a God that can choose to do with my life whatever He sees fit. "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed"-Proverbs 16:3 We do not, not even for a second, take for granted the gift of Ady. All else said, "no". But, the Lord so graciously answered our prayer and said, "yes". But, it wasn't without a fight.

I can't see the road laid out before me, but I do trust and believe that "no good thing will He withhold from those whose walk is blameless."-Psalm 84:11. Praise His name for my sweet Ady. A gift I do not deserve, but am more grateful with each passing day that I have been entrusted to raise. And if I never, ever get to experience the sweet little milestones like Ady's that I already wish could come back, then I will still praise Him. God is good...all the time.

Watch out, moms. Time marches on.

It's Fall, Y'all!

Ady has become a new baby this month. It's like I blinked and once again she's growing way, way, way too fast. Last Friday, (October 7), she took her first "for real" steps. I was sitting on the floor playing with magnets on the fridge. She was over by the pantry. I looked up and she had her daddy's old Snuggle bear in her arm and she was walking! I started to scream and clap. She was giggling. She just kept coming. I kept scooting backwards. It was one of the most precious things I've seen. I will never, ever regret choosing to stay home with her. I have not missed one ounce of these milestones. Such a sweet, sweet memory I will cherish forever.


Last week we went with Gramme and Caden to the pumpkin patch. Ady has been obsessed with pumpkins since we see them at the grocery so frequently. She loved waving to them, being outside, and seeing all the animals.


She sure does love Caden :)



She loved swinging!


She loved the apple cider slushie :)


I love how sweet her expression is here!


At 13 months she's into everything! She loves to talk...all the time! She's a true girl. And...for those of you out there who were predicting she'd make the choice to get rid of the bows. She actually likes them :) She will sometimes cry when I take them off her. But, she did practically come out of the womb with one on :)


Ady loves to eat goldfish, graham crackers, chicken nuggets, fries, peaches, pears, cheez it's, carbs, carbs, and carbs :) I can't get her to eat her veggies well, so we make up for the veggie intake in the Puffs sweet potatoes :) She still loves her Bible. It's her favorite. She's starting to let me read to her now. Somedays she wants to rip the book up, but on a good night I can get her to listen :)


She really loves stuffed animals. Our house is being overtaken by them.


She has truly mastered the art of climbing. Everywhere. And she's FAST!


Did I mention she loves pumpkins? :)


The fall fun continued last weekend as my lifegroup went to a pumpkin patch and Monday night we decorated our pumpkins :) I am very, very blessed to know such Godly women. The Lord has been so good to us!


As we enter into this fall season, this season of thanksgiving, my heart is overflowing. Ady brings my life so much joy. The Lord has answered many prayers for us and many times I am overcome with emotion as I hold my sweet little miracle. This gift that, after two painful surgeries and assurance would never be possible, will always bring me such joy. God has pulled us out from the bottom pit. "Weeping may endure for the night, but JOY comes in the morning!"-Psalm 30:5


"Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to Him in song. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. The depths of the earth are in His hand, and the mountain peaks are His. The sea is His; He made it. His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care."-Psalm 95:2

The Regression.

I'm not really quite sure what's going on in little Ady's world. But....for the past almost 2 weeks, her sleeping patterns have taken a huge turn for the worst. I may have a 12 1/2 month old, but I might as well have a 12 day old baby girl. Which, by the way, I do desperately miss. I miss waking up with her. I knew what to do then...feed her. Now...I'm stumped.


It's a good thing I've managed can get by on little sleep. Because, for the past 14 nights I don't think I've slept more than a total of 3 hours consistently. Sleepy mommy. (And I"m willingly taking any Starbucks giftcards you'd like to share :)) But, what's wrong with Ady?

I can't really remember exactly what it was that started these late night screaming escapades. But, they're painful to hear. It's a screaming, ear piercing, heart breaking, cry. She's on whole milk now and Prevacid still. I don't think that's the issue, since she's happy during the day. For the first several nights, she found relief laying in our bed. They would start about 2-3 am and then she'd be up at 6:30 with us. The problem is....Ady sleeps worse in our bed. She is incredibly sensitive to light or sound. If a dog shakes, a cell phone alarm goes off, you roll over heaven forbid, she's up. So, I have not been a fan of her sleeping with us, as much as I love to hold her. I know it's not best, but what else do you do when you have a screaming baby? How can I tell when it's just normal seperation anxiety awakenings and when it's something painfully wrong? I must have missed the chapter in the Parent's Manual :)

Then...she started these screams earlier, around midnight. Which led her back into our bed even earlier. Are you with me here? Ady has been losing roughly 2 hours or more of sleep every night for 2 weeks. That's a lot of sleep. And, nap time is suffering too.


.....my once very good scheduled napper has regressed. Sigh.....She's been getting 40 minute naps again. And she wakes up screaming. I'm at a loss at what's wrong. She is getting a mouth, and I mean and entire mouth full of teeth! Her top two are in, looks like 2 more up there coming, as well as her molars. I've heard those can be painful. Is this what it is? I'm giving her Tylenol off and on. I don't really notice a difference. Anything else I should try?

Last Sunday we pulled into church at our regular time for 8:30 service. Ady had another sleepless night and she had fallen asleep in the car. I figured she must have a bug, and I told Joseph to go on in and get a seat and I'd just drive around a minute and decide what to do with her. I knew she wasn't going to the nursery; knew something wasn't right. I hadn't so much let him out the door, then she opened her eyes and vomited profusely. At first, I was thinking it was spit up, but as I watched her in the rearview mirror, I saw that something was not right. As I'm panickly trying to find a parking spot in church just so I can stop, she continued on. Once I found one, I immediately tried to catch Joseph. I knew there was no way I was going in there with her. Luckily, I reached him and he came out to help me. I'll spare you the details, but it was a 2, really needed it to be a 3, man job to clean up. Poor baby girl. I called the doctor and she just had some nasty tummy bug. Said to come in on Monday if she had another sleepless and screaming night. So...I did just that. Sunday night=no sleep.

Monday the doctor said she was fine. I was getting mixed signals. He said she probably just wanted to sleep in bed with us (even though I told him that past 5 nights prior she screamed even in my bed & that she's been soothing herself to sleep for quite a while), then he said her ears looked fine, but later said she may have pain between her ears. Well, it's Friday and we've yet to have a restful night of sleep. Last night she came in our bed from 2-6. At 6 I carried her into her bed, screaming. She screamed for about 20 minutes and Joseph went in 3 times to give her the paci (If I go in...it's all over. Thank goodness for daddy!). She fell asleep and it wasn't anytime before she was screaming again. Back and forth for almost 2 hours.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I love my little baby girl and I want her happy self back. She is very happy during the day. She laughs, giggles, waves, talks, babbles, loves to walk, etc, etc. But...sleepy time=no happy time. I'm not trying to complain at all. She's worth everything, but I"m wondering if there is something here I'm missing? Is it just teeth? Night terrors? Any mommies out there, I'd love your advice :)

Splish Splash.

Ady has disliked the "big girl" bathtub f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I tried when she was first able to sit up. She didn't like it. I bought a bath mat. Still didn't like it. So...we continued to bathe her in the infant whale tub. She wasn't over the weight limit and she could have stayed in it longer, but...come on she's 12 months old now. :) I started to have a "mini" panic that this child was going to have to bath in this tub until she was 10 years old. :) So....after some facebook friends advice, we decided to jump on in!

She loved mommy in the tub. (Daddy thought it was so funny, so he snapped a picture).
She loved the bubbles :)


The next night I made daddy jump in and this time mommy snapped the picture :)

And....tada....by the third night...she was bathing by herself. NO tears. She, thankfully, got over her fear of the big scary tub. So...Mr. Whale went into the "baby" closet. No tears from this mommy. While I am sad at how quickly she is growing, I am very proud of my little girl for conquering a fear. Bathtime is much more enjoyable and fun now. Now we have lots of more time to splish and splash :)

lADYbug, lADYbug....

Ady's birthday party was a huge success. Thankfully, there was no rain (since it was an outdoor party). The only problem? It was about 100 degree heat index! Thank goodness Joseph's dad had a very large fan that helped cool things off outside. We had fans inside too and it was perfect :) Check out some pictures of the decorations:








I wish I could take the credit for this idea, but sadly I can't! My sorority sister did a party similar to this for her daughter's 1st birthday several years ago. I "copied" (with permission!) the ladybug idea :) I tweaked it a bit and added the "polka dot effect" on the fence using balloons and a paper plate.



Ady was loved, and loved, and oh so loved! Her cake and the cupcakes (from Aunt Heather's sister again!) were perfect.

She was such a little lady she didn't even get messy. I guess she wanted to preserve the sweet little cake :)


I was surprised at how well she did considering ALL the people around her, but no tears! That's my happy girl! Her Tatay smocked her the perfect dress for her party! !


Her Aunt Stella got her a UK chair and it was a hit! (We're just going to add some Tennessee orange bows to it and daddy and mommy will love it too!). :)


She sat there while I opened her gifts. It was so sweet. No surprise, she got the same Disney princess card by 3 people. It was too funny! The day was absolutely perfect. And finally, about 10:30, Ady was partied out. She fell asleep with people still around, no crying at all, right in her Tatay's arms :)


We are so blessed to have so many people who love our little Adybug! :)