babies grow up

I've been thinking a lot the past few days about how incredibly fast kids grow up. It never felt that way when I was a kid, but now that I'm a mother I have a whole new perspective. Some of you out there are probably thinking "your little girl is only 1 year old." But I'm sure that there are a few of you who hopefully will identify with my feelings. Over the past 15 months my little 6 pound baby has turned in to a chattering, running 24 pound little girl. I have heard people say "they don't stay babies long." And even though in the first few months when you are getting no sleep it might feel like an eternity, it really is such a brief amount of time in a lifespan. I told myself last night as I went in to check on Lily and pray for her before I went to bed, "make sure to enjoy and live in the moment of every single day with Lily." These wonderful days of toddlerhood will be gone before I know it.

Along these same lines, my thoughts have drifted to thinking about how old I would like for Lily to be before I have another child. I'm thinking between 2.5 and 3.5 so that means trying to get pregnant could potentially start as soon as this summer. What a weird thought! I'm one of those people who LOVED being pregnant. I had a very smooth good pregnancy with Lily (besides the awful PUPPP rash at the end). The beautiful miracle of birth that God chose to bless women with is so incredibly amazing. Getting to feel your child moving around inside of you definitely rates VERY high on the list of miraculous things in this world. And then to top it off, you get to experience the birth of your child. Thankfully I had a good birth experience too and didn't have to feel any pain once I got my epidural! I loved the fact that I had a big mirror at the end of the bed so I could see her coming out. It was just so incredibly wonderful having her come out and them instantly laying her up on my chest for the first time. I go back to that very moment so many times. I'm sure I have blogged about it before and maybe several times! But I will never in my lifetime forget how I felt in that moment. So needless to say, I'm excited about being able to experience that again! But it dawned on me that if we were to only have 2 kids, that the next time I'm pregnant could be the last (unless we have 3). That made me really sad!

Well... after all that mushy gushy stuff I would like to also remind those of you out there who haven't had kids that it is HARD work! There were many times in the first few months of Lily's life that I just cried and cried. Sleepless nights and not knowing sometimes what was wrong with her was very very hard. But motherhood is the most wonderfully rewarding hard work there ever was!

To all you other young moms out there: remember today to enjoy the time you have with your babies and toddlers because before we know it, they'll have grown up.

I follow a lot of mom blogs and wanted to post a segment that I read last night from 5 Minutes for Parenting:

"I'm always happy to hold babies - especially dark haired babies with round cheeks and thoughtful eyes, babies that remind me of my own children who now bound around the house, children who kiss me quickly goodbye before dashing off to school, children who once were black-haired babies sleeping, soft little animals in my arms. I've often imagined being able to bottle one day a year with my kids, just one nice, everyday sort of day and then someday, when I'm old, I could take down a bottle and step back - just for a few minutes - into my oldest child's golden haired preschool years, my son's constant toddler chatter around the house, my Baby an actual baby sleeping in my arms. Thank God we can't, though, because the idea is bittersweet enough to just break my heart.

Children grow up. One baby will eventually be your last baby. You have no way of knowing how sad this is, I guess, until you hold your baby in your arms and realize that even at that moment, time is fleeting away."

beautiful weather, playgroup, and busy weekend

Today was another gorgeous good weather day here in Virginia Beach. It was in the mid 60's and sunny. Could have been a bit warmer but I'll take what I can get in February! Lily and I headed to a picture playgroup. The husband of one of the mom's in the group does professional photography and every once in awhile will take individual pics of the kids in the group. Well the room he was doing it in was right next to the play area. When we went to go in there she starts freaking out because I guess she wanted to be where all the other kids were. So... no pictures this time. Lily had a great time playing though!

After that we headed back home and went out back to play. I don't think I mentioned this but one of the bonuses of this house is that out in our backyard there is a part that is fenced in that has a ton of outdoor play toys. It is for the Mother's Day Out kids to use some in the mornings but we can use it anytime we want to! So thankfully we have that free of use for us and we don't really have to buy any outdoor things (playhouse, cozy coupes, etc.). I AM getting a red wagon though for us to have!! I'm very excited about taking Lily for wagon rides in nice weather. This afternoon we went for a walk to get outside some more. I have a feeling the 2 of us are going to be outside a LOT during the spring/summer. I love it and so does Lily.

I was talking to Alicia last night on the phone and I mentioned to her how different our lives are now. There are things that of course that remain the same but in regards to what we're doing/how much we're doing, etc. it's like complete opposite. It seems like there's always something going on - mostly church related things of course. Which I guess I should have expected since Matt's the youth pastor there. For instance... here's our weekend. Tomorrow I'm watching Aaron (our nephew) in the afternoon. Then tomorrow night is the first of our "dinner for 5" for the youth group. Each month we are doing 1 dinner here for 5 of the youth group kids to get to know them more in a more relaxed environment. Saturday evening we are invited to the Flug's house for dinner. They are having a bunch of people over to get to meet the missionaries who are in town from Brazil. The youth group is going to Brazil this summer for their missions trip. Which speaking of, Matt's going to be gone out of the country for 10 days in June for that. :( Plus he'll be gone for Father's Day! AHH! The good part of this (to be positive) is that Lily and I are going to go down to my sister's for the week to spend time with them. So that will definitely be great!

We've only been here for a few weeks now so who knows what our "typical" lifestyle will be but so far that's how it's been. Well... I've gone on enough for now. Off to finish watching American Idol and drink my starbucks coffee.

15 month check-up

Lily had her 15 month check-up today. We saw Dr. Robert Fink and he was great with Lily and us. We didn't feel rushed and he introduced himself, told us a little about how things work at the practice, etc. They were fairly timely too. He asked how we found out about the practice and I told him I use to go there when I was kid. So he asked me my maiden name and looked me up (I'm apparently still in the system!).

Anyways...

Lily weighs 24 pounds which puts her at about the 70th percentile.

She is 32 1/4 inches long which puts her at the 90th percentile.

And her head is 19 1/4 inches which puts her at the 97th percentile.

Today she had the DTAP, HIB and MMR vaccines done. He is waiting until the next check-up (18 months) to do the varicella chicken pox vaccine since he would rather her have the ones he did today but didn't want to give her too many at once.

Everything else is right on target and she's a healthy little girl. He did suggest me doing the whole sock thing on her pj's again to try and break the thumb sucking habit again. The whole move is what caused her to do it again I'm sure. Luckily she only sucks it at naps and nighttime so it at least gets some breaks. So anyways... guess I'll see what I want to do about that after she gets straightened out from the shots.

coloring

I cracked out the crayola scribblers today to see how Lily would do with them. Thankfully they are completely washable! :) Instead of moving it back and forth across the paper she tended to just like use it as if it were a stamp. They're definitely a good idea for toddlers and like I said they wash off anything! Here's a little video of her coloring and saying two of her animal noises: monkey "oo oo oo" and dog "woof woof." She learned the monkey one yesterday.




Yesterday was busy busy with church stuff. My mom is sick so I got a call Saturday to play for church on Sunday. I think it went pretty well considering I'm not as good as my mom and I don't like to play in front of a bunch of people! If you care at all, you can listen to the service on the church's website. The orchestra plays as well for the second service which is the one that is recorded.

Then today was Matt's day off so we headed to the DMV to have our license changed to our new address. One more thing off the to do list of moving! Then we all took a wonderful nap this afternoon. And to end the day, while I was cleaning up from dinner the disposal clogged up. I had put some of the enchilada remainders down it. Luckily Matt's dad knows plumbing stuff so he came over and fixed it for us. There was some NASTY junk that came out of the pipes!!

pics, more words, new playgroup, and a mac

Lily got out her first 2 word phrase last night. Matt and I were playing with her and she wanted me to keep doing what I was doing. After I would finish, she would say "do gin" as in short for "do it again." What a little smartie! More new words: belly button, keys, kiss. The list just keeps growing. This month has felt like she just keeps figuring out more and more sounds. Anytime she sees anything that even looks like a dog now she says "woof woof." It's so very cute.
Tomorrow Lily and I are trying out a new playgroup. This will be our 2nd attempt at a new one. I actually found this one on meetup.com through searching for christian mom playgroups. So I guess we'll see how it goes! I'm being very brave because the playgroup tomorrow is at one of the mom's house. This group seems to have a lot more activities and at times that fit around Lily's nap schedule. Plus it's mainly for moms who have kids that were born in 2007 (lily's birth year).Last night I got a call from the music director at our church asking me to play for wednesday night service. I had a feeling that once we moved here I would be getting calls to play when my mom is out of town. This week she has been at my sister's house. It went okay - thankfully familiar music that wasn't too hard. I am just NOT a fan of playing in public or for other people.

I haven't mentioned this yet but we are supposedly going to be getting a BIG refund from the IRS. Yay!!! I mean I was VERY VERY surprised at the amount. Matt has been wanting to get a Macbook to use for work. Most of the youth group stuff runs off of a mac currently but that one is owned by someone else in the church. Plus he needs a good computer for his office. And of course he just wants to have one in general. So me being the generous loving wife agreed to let him use some of the money we're getting to get him a new Macbook. He went to get it today and he is in heaven! The other money is wisely being put to some financial things we need to take care of. So thank you IRS!!! We don't get these treats very often and haven't been able to really make any personal purchases the last year before Matt got his new job. I'm still waiting for my minivan. :)And finally I forgot to mention that on Monday we went to order our new tv console. Yay!!! I'm SOO excited. We need to get a few things for our new house (larger purchases) but will have to gradually work on it. The tv console was the most important thing at this point. With our bigger tv, video game stuff, and now a big cox dvr/hd box, we definitely need something bigger to accomodate everything. Plus ours has a big glass door which always worries me with a toddler in the house. There isn't an actual picture of it online but it's part of the Sterling Collection at VCF. So you can get an idea of the style of it. We're supposed to be able to pick it up the first week in March, just in time for my birthday!Lily's new way to use her walker turned wagon:

spider song, new words, kissing, v-day

We've been busy busy! Don't really know what we've been doing but it seems like it's been one thing after the other - errands, trying to get settled in, church stuff, etc.

Two cute stories for the day... First, this evening before bed I was singing Lily the song "intsy wintsy spider." She apparently loved it because from then until bedtime she kept saying again to get me to sing it again and again and again. As soon as I would start singing it again, she would dance and move her arms around like she's directing the music. It was very cute.

Then we were in our bedroom. On the bathroom door in our room there is a long mirror. She always goes over there and looks at herself in it. Tonight I was doing something in there and realized that I kept hearing her give something kisses. And the lucky person was.... herself! She kept leaning in to the mirror giving herself kisses. It was adorable!!! Wish I could have gotten it on camera.

Lily has really been picking up on words lately and trying to get all kinds of different words out. Granted, most people might not pick up on it or know what it means but since I'm with her all the time I can translate pretty well. Here are some of the new ones she knows: minnie, tigger, again, milk, moo (for a cow), woof (for a dog), bye bye, dada, mama (using both for the right person!), shoes, socks, snack, nose, thank you, please, blanket, brush. They of course don't all come out sounding complete or exactly like they should but it's definitely what she's saying.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Lily got in bed with us in the morning and we opened presents. Lily got a cute little stuffed bear from her daddy and I got a brand new camera I had been wanting. Yay!! Ours had broken about a month ago and we had been borrowing Matt's parents camera until we got settled in our new home and had some money! I had done a lot of research and asked a few people I knew who were photographers about what the best digital point and shoot camera is right now. I am THOROUGHLY pleased too. It takes GREAT pictures and is fast. You don't have to wait a long time to take your next picture. He got me the Canon 1100SD in brown.

That afternoon we headed to Matt's parents house for a little while so Lily could play with Aaron over there. Nana took them outside since it wasn't too cold so they could ride in the wagon and ride in the cozy coupe. Lily loves that thing! Then that evening my parents came over to babysit Lily so Matt and I could go to the sweethearts banquet at church. So we had a great day. Matt is taking me out to dinner at pfchangs hopefully sometime this week or next for our valentine's date out alone.

I have some pics that I wanted to post with this blog but we haven't uploaded the camera software on to the computer yet so that will have to wait!

when you think you have it rough

Browse around this blog and read their story. I saw this dad and his little girl on Rachael Ray this morning and just started tearing up. The basic short story is that the day after the wife gave birth to their first little baby girl, she instantly died. She had a blood clot in her leg and it went to her lungs and killed her on the spot. So this dad loses his wife and then has to go home with a brand new baby girl to take care of all by himself. Anyways... just thought some of my reader moms would like to read his story and look at their beautiful baby girl.

visit from a friend and a day at the park

Recap from this past weekend...

On Saturday my best friend from college, Tara, was in town visiting her in laws. So her, Anthony, and their baby girl Bailey came over to see us for a quick visit and to check out our new place. Even though it was short, it was so great to see Tara again and of course little Bailey!! It's so weird holding a tiny baby now... feels like it's been forever since Lily was that little!Then on Sunday it was 70 degrees outside and sunny!!! I absolutely LOVE that kind of weather -jeans and flip flops!! So after church was over we headed to Woodstock Park to take Lily out to the playground. We had a great time and Lily loved it!

nose picker and playgroup

Hilarious short story to jot down before I forget about it! Today on the way home from the mall, I look in the back seat and Lily has her finger up her nose and is smiling. She kept putting it up there and laughing. It was HILARIOUS!! My little Lily is a nose picker.

Went to playgroup this morning at the play area at Lynnhaven Mall. There were 3 other moms there with their kids. Lily had a blast running around although she got trampled a few times by older kids. :) I got to chat a little bit with the other moms but not too much since I had to follow Lily around so she wouldn't get run over or fall off all the steps! But all in all we had a good time. After that, Lily and I had lunch together and then did a little shopping. It's SO nice to have so many better malls now!!

move

Where do I being? I hate when I don't have the time/energy to blog for awhile because then I have all of these things I want to write about but then forget.

We're here. I knew this was going to be very bittersweet for me and difficult since I HATE change, but I never thought about the fact that it would be an adjustment for Lily too. And that has made it even sadder/harder for me. Before I start discussing the bad parts though, I want to make sure that I clarify that I'm SO thankful to God for all of this and I AM happy about this next phase of our life.

The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind for Lily. I never took the time to think about that Lily knows our old home really well now even though she's only 14 months old. This new home is VERY strange to her. Not only is she in a new and MUCH larger place, she's been passed around to a gazillion different people it seems like and lived in a world of boxes and packing tape. The first few days she was VERY whiny/clingy and just crying a lot. The saddest part was at bedtime. Lily always runs to the bathroom door saying "baa" for bath as soon as I take her clothes off at night. Well she obviously didn't know at first where the bathroom was and she would look at me saying "ba" in a confused voice and had this pitiful little look on her face because she didn't know where to go. For those of you that aren't moms, you probably won't understand. But it was VERY sad and pitiful! Alicia and my sister of course reminded that she WILL get use to her new home. It just takes time. And they were right! Last night when I took her clothes off she headed straight for the bathroom door! It made me really happy.

So how am I doing? The first 2 or 3 days I actually didn't cry at all because I was SO busy with trying to get our house in order. Then one night Matt was gone, Lily was to bed, and I had the time to think about it all. The biggest thing was that I desperately needed to know that I was going to be able to find some mom friends and get out with Lily. It was SO hard knowing that I had nothing planned and that my weekly playdate with Alicia and Andi and my coffee night out with Vicky days were gone. :( My sister really motivated me to reach out. She reminded me that I was going to just have to put myself out there and ask people if they want to hang out. The Mommies Network is a HUGE resource and they have scheduled events/playdates a lot. So I'm going to a strange playgroup at the mall on Tuesday and then I contacted an old friend of mine who has a little girl and we are going to lunch at chick-fil-a on Wednesday! Yay me for being brave! :) It still doesn't feel like home yet and that we should be going back to Lynchburg but that will just take time.

Our house, on a positive note, is AMAZING! They put a ton of work in to it before we moved in including completely remodeling both of the bathrooms, all new carpet, new paint, and new wood flooring in the kitchen and dining room. We also have 2 beautiful fireplaces in the house. I'm so grateful for all this space! It's so important when you have kids and get overrun by toys!! I posted all the pics of the house on facebook so you can check them out there.

Matt is enjoying his job of course. Last week he went in for a little bit each day but was able to just get things done around the house and errands that we needed to run. So that was nice! This week will probably be more his normal schedule but it's still really flexible. He's going to do Monday as his day off.

I am sure there are plenty of other things I wanted to write about but will save those for later since I am now ready to just sit and watch some tv!

we're alive

We're here in Virginia Beach! I've had a lot of people say that they can't get in to the blog without having a google account. That's annoying!! So I've changed it back to public so everyone who wants to read it doesn't have to sign up for an account. If anybody out there knows any other way to make it private without guests having to have an acccount let me know!

It's been very very busy and we just got internet hooked up yesterday so blogging has been put on hold. It'll probably be a few more days before things settle down and I get back to regularly blogging. For now, things are good and we're getting adjusted to our new life. I'll also take pictures of our new home and post them once we get things in order!