Wow. Today I was in the car, and I just starting thinking about how lucky I am to have these beautiful little children in my life. Often, I find myself looking ahead to the next thing: for Audrey – excited about her eating soon, and crawling and sleeping better; for Bella – excited to see her making true friends, learning social skills and discovering her world in so so many ways. But today, all I could think is that they are growing so fast – and sometimes I wish I could just freeze a moment in time. They are beautiful right now, and I will never get them at this age again – and I absolutely love it. And even though I want to stop time sometimes, I realize it just gets better and better.
Bella can really test you – as she is learning SO much right now, and we are having to teach her about “right” and “wrong” behavior. I have to remind myself alot of days that she is only 3, because she speaks like a 5 year old, and she comes up with some really creative ideas for her age. She imitates everything – including other kids (which can sometimes not do the “right” thing). Often, I don’t even think she realizes that she is doing something “unkind”. (For example, she called me a “poo poo head” the other day when we were walking home and I said something she didn’t like – she said it a bit apprehensively, like she didn’t know for sure if it was ok to say…I definitely let her know it was not in that case…) We had a talk tonight about how important when you are doing something that you see someone else do, that you need to look into your own heart to decide if it feels “right”. The golden rule – do unto others as you would have done to you…I think she got it. Although I am sure it will take years to really try to follow. I do think she wants to be “kind” to others in her heart. It is exciting to see her try to learn how to empathize a bit. What a big skill for a kid to try to wrap their head around!
Audrey is trying SO hard to crawl. She is so darn close. Today she learned how to hurl her body forward to get what she wants. Not really a scoot – more of just getting up on her hands and knees and then pushing her whole body forward on her tummy one time. She is also trying to sit up. She is very determined and quite strong for her age. I am still waiting to feed her “food” until I see the doctor next week for her 6 month appt. But, she is sleeping better at this point. Her naps are erratic, but at night she will go from 7:45 until 5 am fairly regularly – maybe waking just once in that time frame. You know I love my sleep and would love to have her make it until 7 – but after the past few months I’m celebrating just getting to sleep for more than 4 hours in a row. I’ll take what I can get. 🙂
Summer is here – and we’ve been very busy already. We had a wonderful visit with Christi, Jason, Caitlin and Dianne at our house a few weeks ago – and this past weekend we went to Houston and visited with GoGo (MiMi came for one day) and Big Don. It was really fun to see the great-grandparents. We are blessed to still have them in our lives – and I love to hear their stories about when they grew up. Both our grandparents actually grew up in the Houston area…Big Don was telling me a story about the planes he used to fly, and how he landed one without the wheels on a trip with MeMe’s dad, and also about raising my mom, aunt and uncle – and hang drying all their diapers (yuk!). I wish I could force them to write a book, because I just love to imagine what it was like when they were raising our parents. It is so different now. (My kid will never be get to roam around a forest for hours like GoGo did as a child…wouldn’t it be wonderful to allow them that freedom! They will probably have cell phones implanted in their brains and gps to boot by the time they are in middle school.)
Thought I should post an update today – as I know as summer rolls on, I won’t get many chances to do so. We are looking forward to so many things!
I don’t have my photos just yet from Houston – but here are a few from when the Kennedy’s and Mi Mi visited. Sorry some are sideways – I didn’t have time to edit.
