First Trip to the Zoo!

Last Saturday we took a fun trip to the Atlanta Zoo. We went on a morning that was cool and overcast, but we knew the weather was supposed to clear up that day. It actually worked out really well, because it was very pleasant when we got there and by the time the temperature was really heating up, we had seen just about everything we came to see!

I couldn't tell you if Jack had a favorite animal or not - he did seem intrigued by the otters because they moved so fast - but I really think he enjoyed just watching all the other children walking around and riding in strollers as much as any of the animals! He was quite the people watcher that day.

Here are some of our favorite moments...

Mother's Day

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." - Psalm 139:13

As you can probably imagine, Mother's Day for me is very bittersweet. It's so ironic that days designated to celebrate something specific can often bring joy to many and pain to some. Take Valentine's Day, for example. If you happen to be single, on Valentine's Day you feel single, but even more so. Boy, do I vividly remember those days!

But this entry isn't a pity party for me. As much as I'd love to call my mom up and wish her a cheery "Happy Mother's Day" this afternoon, I know there are many, many others out there who ache today far more than I do: the countless women who would love to become moms but so far cannot, or the mothers out there who have lost a child.

Yes, this is not just about me, this is intended to be an encouragement to anyone out there who thinks God might have forgotten them today. Here's a story for you:

This is the fifth Mother's Day I am celebrating in my mom's absence here on earth, but I must say, the first one without her was by far the hardest. I was living in Boston at the time and just about to finish my Master's Degree. I was in the final stages of school and was working hard to finish my thesis. I was tired from school and planning a wedding, and I was ready to go back to Virginia. And I missed my family and Lyle. So I walked that morning to church - Mother's Day of 2006 - with a heavy heart. I didn't want to be celebrating anything that day - the pain was just too raw.

In the middle of the second set of hymns that morning at Christ the King Presbyterian in Cambridge, MA, as soon as I heard the opening chords of "Great is thy Faithfulness" the tears just began to slide down my cheeks. Some of you might remember that this is a song that has very special meaning to me: it's the one I sang at Mom's funeral. I felt then and there in church that God was whispering to me that He loved me and He hadn't forgotten about me at all. And what a beautiful way to deliver the message through that hymn! It was such a gift to hear that song on that day, and what made the gift even more unique was that in the previous 8 months I had been attending that church, we had never once sung that particular hymn. I don't know who or why someone there picked that song for Mother's Day, but I do know with all my heart I believe God had His hand in their decision, just because He wanted to give me a special gift and let me know how loved I am.

So to anyone needing encouragement - know you are loved by Almighty God who knit you together in your mother's womb. He loves you way too much to forget about you, today or any other day.

I can hear Jack upstairs waking up from his nap, so it's time to close. Motherly duties call!

Finally Feeling Better!

It is amazing how much brighter the world seems when you get to feeling well after a long illness. Not that I should really categorize the past 2 months as a "long illness" in the strictest sense, but boy, it sure feels like it!

Beginning in March, we kept going around and around with series of colds, ear infections, sinus infections, and then after that about 3 weeks ago Jack and I both caught a virus that literally knocked us flat for over a week. I learned that taking care of a sick toddler while being sick yourself was just about the toughest thing I've done for a while. There was one morning where instead of making my typical "to do" list, I just told myself..."All you have to do today is survive. That's it." And of course, we did.

We have finally started to fully recover, and in the mean time we're trying to get out and get back in contact with the outside world again. I feel like we fell off the face of the earth there for a while. We are having a good week, though. The weather has been beautiful here in Georgia lately - not too hot and humid yet - and Lyle, Jack, and I are back into our regular routines with work and daycare.

Speaking of daycare, Jack has recently moved from the baby class up to the "big boy" class. That's been quite a milestone. He's finally adjusting there, I think, and he seems to like all the activity, but it was a tough transition there for a while. There were a few mornings when I brought him into the class, stood him up on the floor, and he would just cling to my leg and cry. Is there really a worse feeling in the world than leaving your toddler when they're screaming, and all they want is YOU? I know they stop crying after a few minutes - those short attention spans really are good for something - but, oh, what a horrible way to start the day!

So I'm glad we're past that phase now, too. In a nutshell, March and April I would not want to repeat, although we did get some surprising good news during the month of March. But I shall save that for a future blog!

Jack's First Birthday - Party #1

This is called Party #1, because there were officially three days of celebration over the event of Jack's first birthday. The partying began on Thursday, February 25, a day before his actual birthday, and ended on Saturday when Aunt Sarah, Uncle Nathan, Cousin Lauren, and Cousin Benjamin could come to our house for a celebration.

Party #1 was in Jack's class at daycare. He was rather grumpy that day, unfortunately, and kept crawling away from me when I would approach him with a birthday hat. (Maybe he feels like with his helmet, that's the most hats he can wear at one time!)

We took pictures with his little classmates - Christina, Lauren, and Dane - then ate some lunch, but then the REAL partying began when we brought out the cupcakes. They were the tiny cupcakes that it takes an adult two bites to finish...or they can take Jack just one handful! He had the entire cupcake in his mouth before we'd even finished singing Happy Birthday!

The most memorable event was when the boy in the highchair next to him, Dane, was holding a cupcake in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it. Quick as a wink, Jack grabbed Dane's cupcake and put that one in his mouth, too! The moms all got a kick out of that one.

That's our Jack - the boy sure does like to eat.

Too Many Excuses...

...But most of them are really worth going into as far as why I have not published a recent blog.

Maybe I should try a "New Year's Resolution" to blog more, although with the current pace we've been keeping, I honestly don't think it will help!

Part of the reason why we've had our hands full recently, as you'll see in this video, is that Jack has suddenly gone from being our baby (who we could sit in the middle of the floor and he would play contentedly), to "Now I'm a pre-toddler, and I'm into everything!"

This new phase of crawling, pulling up, pulling things over, climbing up stairs, and just generally wreaking havoc around the house (he broke a lamp today, for example) certainly has its challenges. But it also has its joys. Jack is such a happy little boy. He loves to laugh, and we love to laugh with him. He's obsessed with Roscoe and thinks that the doggie is so funny! To give you an idea how much he likes Roscoe, the three words he can definitely say now are Dada, Mama, and Doga.

Here are Jack and Roscoe in action. Be sure to turn up the volume so you can hear the cute "baby laugh." I'll try and post more soon - this is just to get me back in the habit, so to speak.

Proud Moments Prayerfully to Come

When I was pregnant and the tears came easily, I blamed it on the crazy hormones. After I had Jack and the tears still kept coming easily, I said it was post-partum. And by and large, it was. However, these days, there are just some surprising moments every now and then where I find myself with tears in my eyes, and I just didn't see it coming.

Can't blame it on the pregnancy, the hormones, or the post-partum. Guess it's just part of being a mom.

I had one of these moments yesterday morning in church. At the end of the service, the pastor said they were going to have one baptism that day. It was an 8-year-old boy with blonde hair named Christian. After he and one of the other pastors waded down into the baptismal, the pastor placed his hand on Christian's shoulder and asked him, "Christian, have you accepted Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior?"

Unconcerned of the hundreds of people that were watching him at just that moment, Christian looked up at the pastor and answered quite solemnly, "Yes, sir. I have."

And then I found myself with tears in my eyes as I watched him go under the water and come back up. All I could think about was how I cannot wait for the day that will hopefully and prayerfully come when I see someone ask my own little boy that question, and Jack will respond in the affirmative just as Christian did. I thought that that must be just about one of the proudest moments in life that a parent can have. I cannot imagine anything that would make me happier.

Even though Jack is just an infant now, moments like this are good reminders for me because they inspire me to want to show Jack Christ's love right now, not tomorrow, not the next day, but now. It's so easy for me to get wrapped up in the daily grind of diapers, baby food, trips to the grocery store, and then other days where I get to wear my Business Analyst hat for most of the day. It's like watching it rain and only focusing on the raindrops as they fall, forgetting that they pool together on the ground in a big puddle. Our days as we go through them seem so individual, but really they run together and create patterns and habits for living that pool together to make up our entire lives.

I want to give this idea some more thought about raindrops and puddles...which will probably be easy to do as they are calling for five inches of rain tomorrow thanks to Hurricane Ida. I think when it comes to changing my focus from the temporal to the timeless, I need all the help I can get!

October in a Nutshell

I cannot believe I have gone a whole month without a blog post. Bad, bad Mommy!

The month of October has been full of challenges but also excitement. As far as the challenges, Jack has been sick for much of the month which has not been fun. He had a couple of painful, fussy days of teething towards the beginning of the month, then he had an ear infection, then rounded out the past few weeks by getting a cold. He had to get a second round of antibiotics from the ear infection--I sure hope we're past all that now. He seems to be doing well lately, though, which has been so nice. It was tough around here for a couple of weeks. My heart goes out to those of you that have or have had children who get sick easily and often!

The flipside with his illnesses this past month is that he has grown in leaps and bounds with some new motor skills and developments. He now is a pro at clapping his hands, rolling over, pushing way up on his tummy, and even scooting backwards. I must admit, it is a strange feeling to walk away from him and then come back and find him in a different spot and/or position on the floor! I'm not used to that yet (but I better get there fast, huh?)

We also have continued to have the visits to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta about his head shape. At the end of September he was showing two months worth of improvement, but at the end of October his skull had not grown enough for them to tell anything conclusively. The doctor said it made sense because he had been sick so much, so his body had not really had a chance to grow because it was too busy fighting off illness. So...we have to go back there in yet another month for a re-evaluation.

Another interesting part of last month is that Lyle and I decided that we want to try and move to Peachtree City. There are a number of reasons why we'd like to move, and with the current housing market, provided we can sell our house here, we're hoping to get a good deal on our next place. We spent a couple different weekends in October visiting and driving around in Peachtree City.

So these are exciting times...life is definitely fun these days with our little pumpkin!