Currently Listening Live From Cincinnati: Bringing It Home True Beauty see related

My Traumatic Experience

Evie gave up breast-feeding in one afternoon. 

With Justin, I never experienced rejection when offering to nurse, but I felt entirely rejected with Evie.  Here's how it went:  I had nursed her already a few times that day, but when at dinner she was no longer interested in her food and I went to nurse her, she got a mouthful and let it trickle out of her mouth and then she never did it again.  She looked at me blank-faced like there was nothing there for her.  I was fairly hopeful it was a fluke but when the next morning she completely turned her head away, I became concerned that she was sick or something.  I even had her seen at the doc's office.  The pediatrician saw no signs of illness and concluded Evie had weened herself, which, she said, is not uncommon at this age.  "I feel like I did something wrong," I lamented.  "No!" She quickly reassured me, and said I could start offering her 2% or whole milk. 

Over the course of the next few days, I tried several times offering for her to nurse.  Each time she turned her head away, sometimes pushed me away, and usually became upset.  Wow.  I cried a few times and took it to the Lord.  So many things were running through me head:  I had just decided that I didn't care about weening her even though she was approaching a year.  I thought "it won't be a big deal to just continue offering her a morning or evening snack as long as she wants it".  [Whereas with Justin, I weened him (not at his request) at 12 months.]  I also had just started working out more hard-core, and after she rejected me, I remembered that that can change the taste of the milk for the baby.  In addition, the evening she gave up breastfeeding was the same day that she drank more juice/water than ever before.  I wasn't concerned about this, though, because she hadn't been drinking enough liquid to make up for the gradual weening her solid-food consumption was causing.  Not to mention it was an abnormally warm and sunny day and she and I had been enjoying a quiet afternoon on the deck together as Justin took his nap. 

A month's time has passed.  Now, I'm over my grieving process, my hormones and body are back to normal, and I'm enjoying getting to know Evie in all new ways.  Her personality has really soared as she has begun playing lots more games with all of us, such as hide-and-seek, chase-me, bouncing to songs, giggling all the way.  She's also started to show a lot of increased interest in picture books.

Though it was certainly a traumatic experience and caused me to doubt my motherly abilities, God has truly been working on my heart over this past month as well.  I've had to remember to place my identity in Christ.  I've drawn closer to JP through this time, too, as he's helped me cope with the physical and emotional changes.  This verse has meant a lot to me lately, as I've turned to his word to help me become more reflective of Him and less of me:  "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthian 3:18).

Justin and Evie's height potential

While catching up on some of E's entries, I saw that she had calculated my little neice and nephews potential heights.  I was hoping she'd have the formula for me to use to find out what Justin and Evie's would be, and much to my pleasure, she did!  Thanks, Elisa!  So, here is the potential for Justin and Evie's heights, if they grow normally:

Justin:  anywhere from 5' 8 1/2" to 6' 3"

Evie:  from 5' 3" to 5' 9 1/2"

I don't know if their general trend has anything to do with their final heights, but if so, I'd wager that Evie is probably going to be on the lower end.  She's currently in the 25th percentile for her height, and 50th for her weight. 

Justin, on the other hand, has generally been consistently on the tall side, and last checked (at age 2), he was in the 80th percentile for his height, 75th for weight.  However, he was a chubby baby and at one point only at the 50th percentile, so, we'll see.  It's a lot of fun speculating, though.

Currently, I'm typing on JP's mom's pseudo office space she's leasing in her home's upstairs dormer window overlooking the nearby park and lake, while their new church is being established.  We're visiting JP's family in St. Louis for the weekend due to JP's being taken out to a Blues Hockey game with some coworkers. 

Today, the Ladies of the family with the sad exception of Elisa, went to the Butterfly house with our 5 collective kids and then to McDonald's.  Now the kids (at least mine) are sleeping, and JP should be driving here on his way home from work (in st. Louis--his company's corporate office) for the day. 

Currently Reading Life Lessons: Books of 1 & 2 Peter (Life Lessons) By Max Lucado see related

Baby food and such

Pictures in order are:  Evie with Justin's hand at 2 months; Evie at 4.5 months with tongue; Justin holding Evie around 4 months; JP helping Justin make cookies; Justin at 2 years; Betsy with Evie at 2 months; Evie at 4.5 months grabbing toe; Evie at 3 months being very happy; Justin and Evie on floor at 3 months; the American flag cake at 4th of July; Justin fixing the struts at 2 years, 2 months; Evie at 5 months grabbing both toes in action.

Our first MOPS meeting has come and long gone.  It went well, said lots of people to me.  We had 21 moms, near the peak of last year's 22.  This was reassuring to me as a new coordinator since about 9 of the moms were first-timers.  (We had plenty of moms who either graduated MOPS last year or went to work more full-time.)

So praise God!  And the most significant answer to prayer (that I actually was able to rest in God doing the impossible) was that we had enough wonderful volunteers to keep watch over the little ones!  As I prayed, they came out of the woodwork.  Not only that, but we'll have enough volunteers to put 3 in the babies, and add another classroom in order to split up the 1's and 2's!  This is a big deal, because we have a ton more kids this year on the younger end of things.  We would have had 17 under 2, all in the nursery!  That is way too crowded.  So, praise God, by our November meeting, we will have enough volunteers to host babies under 1 in the nursery, 1's in their own classroom next to the 2's in theirs, and a class for 3-5's (our smallest attendance at about 5 kids). 

Thanks all, for your prayers!

Evie is now 5 months old!  Oh my goodness.  She is busy rolling over and sucking anything she can reach.  She laughs at Justin so much that sometimes it's difficult for me to entertain her when I really want her to laugh at me too!  I'm very glad that they get along so well. I'm clearly more concerned about Justin rolling over her and being a little too rough than she is.  She usually starts giggling at about the same moment that I'm about to warn him not to be so rough with her because she's too little. 

About 3 or so weeks ago, she started waking up earlier and earlier.  She had been sleeping nearly 12 hours at night at her peak, but had slowly widdled her night's sleep down to around 7 or 8.  I was very skeptical that she may need to start on solid foods since I only started Justin before his 6 month checkup because I didn't want him to refuse it later (so I was told by my pediatrician). 

Anyway, Evie was also getting quite interested in watching us eat and sleeping waking up hungry after taking shorter naps than previously.

Though Evie was only a little over 4 months, I had concluded after watching closely, that she indeed was wanting to start nibbling something a little more than breastmilk.  So, she likes Gerber baby rice cereal enough, as long as it's thinned with breastmilk.  But I don't want to keep her on rice cereal only as I don't want her to just gain weight without nutrients found in fruits and veggies.  I decided to try bananas next.  I was reluctant to do this since there's some though that it may give her a sweet tooth.  I purposely started Justin on veggies after rice and then fruit to avoid this, but he doesn't like veggies much to this day and loves fruit.  My mom and the author of Super Baby Food and a friend of mine started her kids on babnanas and all of the children of these moms have the least picky kids of anyone I know. 

So, Evie took a liking to bananas after a few tries, so I thought I'd try sweet potatoes.  She despises them so far after about 3 tries.  She never has eaten more than a few bites of her food.  I suppose this is normal.  But it is can be frustrating to me because I just expect her to enjoy everything I give her and for her to eat the whole food cube and smile at being full at the end of a well-eaten meal. 

I failed to mention that I was so frustrated when Justin did the same thing, that I fear I "forced" him to eat foods he didn't want to.  I just thought, "I am NOT going to raise a child who's a picky eater, that's just American".  I thought kids were raised picky, not born picky.  I've been assured it can take up to 20 times for a kid to eat a food he doesn't initially like.  Well, in Justin's toddlerhood, I've loosened up a bit and for a while, JP and I just would put one green bean on his plate and encourage him to at least try it.  Other than a few times, he usually wouldn't want to.  Now, we let him know he can not have seconds of whatever he likes unless he actually eats one green bean, or a bite of peas, etc.  He actually is doing much much better than anticipated.  He also happily eats lunch meat and meat loaf now too!  He used to refuse all meat.  He even devoured the fish I had baked (and breaded of course :)) last night! 

My question, I guess, is, should I just be more patient with Evie and let her eat that yummy rice with breastmilk and bananas until she seems to get bored with it?  Should I keep trying new foods (like the avacado I have waiting for her in my fridge)? 

Let me know if you have any suggestions!

p.s.  I've recently discovered the wonders of carrying baby Evie on my hip via the Baly Breeze Baby wrap.  She absolutely adores the closeness as well as being able to see where we're walking!  Thanks again, Ben & E. 

Currently Listening Real and Personal By Papa San see related

MOPS

So, the summer has quickly been passing us by.  What an eventful summer it's been!  Evie is now 3 months!  And Justin is the big 2.0!  Wow. 

I've been very involved lately with planning and organizing this year's MOPS program.  I'm the Coordinator this year at our church.  It all started like this:  a year and a half ago at Christmastime with JP's family in St. Louis, I spoke with his cousin's wife, Erin, about MOPS.  The name sounded dorky to me, but the idea of getting together with other like-minded moms to have crafts and hear speakers and hang out sounded very, well, needed.  So I spoke with a friend of mine at our church and she quickly spoke to another lady.  This lady, very much a go-getter, only needed my excitement and interest to spark her go-getting.  So, a year and a half later, I've taken on the Coordinator's position.  Last year and the half a year before that, I was the Creative Activities girl.  I greatly enjoy crafts, and this came quite naturally to me.  Or, supernaturally, as the case truly is.  I got that incredible feeling while teaching a craft at a MOPS meeting that says-yes, yes, this is what I was created to do.  Yes, that's the Holy Spirit working his gift through me.

I was reluctant to take on the Coordinator's position because I don't-well-exactly have the gift of administration.  But I prayed a lot about whether I should take the position.  Knowing I'd have a newborn in May, and remembering how difficult of a time I had after Justin's birth, I was scared to take on this leadership role.  But God pretty much impressed on me that I needed to take this role on faith, and that He'd lead me and this was after all His MOPS group, not mine. 

So I've been mostly praying a lot these past 3 months and just this month I've started doing the paper planning and meetings. 

Can I just say I had no idea how much work it is to organize and plan even one planning meeting?  I spent so many hours organizing my thoughts and getting them straight on an Agenda.  I spent lots of time in prayer trying to get a Spirit-filled heart when I just kept being anxious about everything.  It's a good thing that I can definitely say that if this year goes well, which I fully expect it to, it will only be because of God.  I stress myself out way too easily about having too much to do, and whatnot.  I've been seeing the importance of getting organized early so I know what needs to happen for the purpose of delegating.  That allows the other moms to use their God-given gifts as well.  I don't want to rob them of that chance. 

Anyway, I am sending out a plea for prayer.  I would like to be able to enjoy the work I'm doing.  I so often take my eyes off of Jesus and look at the seemingly mountain of tasks to be completed and start to fear.  Sometimes I actually can't sleep well because I have so many ideas and to-do lists running through my head.

However, I am always encouraged after I've prayed and sit down and get my thoughts down on paper.  I have to praise God that after the first planning meeting was over, my spirit rejoiced within me.  It was clearly a job well done and it was that similar feeling I got while I taught crafts.  It was a feeling of satisfaction that God could work through me to accomplish what He and only He could do through me.  So, among the many verses I've been meditating on lately, I'll share this precious one:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord." Philippians 4:6,7

Currently Watching Horatio Hornblower Collector's Edition By Ioan Gruffudd, Robert Lindsay (II), Dorian Healy, Michael Byrne, Robert Bathurst see related

Life with Two Kids

So, there's a lot that's changed since we now have two childern.  We'll see if we can recount what's been going on:

1.  LIFE IS BUSY!

Okay.  Let's qualify that.  Justin is busy and Evelyn keeps Betsy busy.  In the evenings, Josh spends quality time with Justin and helps out with Evelyn. (See picture of Josh playing racing games on the computer occupying both children.  Needless to say, he doesn't win every race.) 

2.  Justin no longer has us all to himself.

Justin is working on figuring out this whole deal where he became not the center of attention.  He will often crawl up into the lap of whoever's holding Evelyn even though the other parent's lap is wide open.  (See picture of Betsy with Evelyn and Justin.) While this new addition means he get's less attention than before, it also means a greater degree of freedom.  In general he does well with this freedom, but he also tests his boundaries a good bit more.  (See guilty look on Justin's face as he's caught playing in the sink.)

3.  Naptime becomes the focal point of the day.

Naptime must be corrdenated so that both children are in bed at the same time.  Needless to say, there is some loss of sleep during the night due to the new arrival.  This loss can only be recouped through much strategizing  Because Justin only takes one nap, while Evelyn is at times awake and at times sleeping.  Getting the two naps to coencide can sometimes seem like waiting for the stars to allign.

4.  They sure are a lot of fun!

Despite all of the effort that must go into parenting, children certainly are a blessing from the Lord.  Here's a few pictures of fun time.