Birthday Bonanza

We spent the weekend celebrating Caroline's birthday and we all had a great time.  There was a hot air balloon championship in Baton Rouge this weekend, so we spent Friday evening out there watching the balloons take off and fly and then at nightfall, they did the "balloon glow", which was a little scary for Caroline at first, but she ended up really enjoying it.  You don't realize how huge those balloons are until you are up close and I'm sure for her they were a little imposing, not to mention the loud noises they make and the heat they put off when they fire up the burners. Caroline also enjoyed about four or five bites of a snow cone before she decided it was too cold and too messy to deal with.  We ran into some friends a visited a while before heading home to get Caroline a late bath and put her to bed.  

Saturday was Caroline's party and she had a great time.  It was at the Little Gym and that was the perfect place for a group of energy-filled two, three, and four year olds.  Her cake was hilarious; it was a Disney Princess cake and the first word that popped into my mind when I saw it was "tacky", but in a good three year old little girl sort of way.  

Finally on Sunday, her actual birthday, she woke up and we gave her the present we got her: her pink Barbie Powerwheels Jeep.  She loved it and we gave her a little driving lessons around the block on the spot - all of us in our pajamas (so if any of you drove down our street at 6:45 or 7:00 on Sunday morning, that explains the family out for their morning walk in their PJ's).  I think she's finally getting the concept of steering the Jeep; it wasn't quite clicking at first that she actually had control over the direction the Jeep went.  After church, my Mom came by to give her a present, she got a really nice doll that I know Caroline will love for a long time.  This doll must be special because it is the first doll that Caroline has actually bestowed with a "real name":  "Annie".  No, the doll does not have red hair and freckles, but Caroline named her Annie anyway.  All of her other dolls are named "baby", so this little doll has a special place in Caroline's heart.  As if that wasn't enough, my Dad and his wife came over to give Caroline a doll house, and this doll house is actually the doll house my dad made for me when I was about 5 or so, although they spent plenty of time updating and improving it.  It looks great and Caroline has already made some make-shift furniture for it.  

Sunday night we decided to head back out to see the balloons one last time and we were treated to seeing some tactical skydivers before the balloons blew up and took off for their final send-off.  The skydivers were really neat, we got to see them actually take off in their helicopter and fly up to about 7,000 feet before we saw little specks come out of the helicopter and slowly emerge as people as they got closer.  These men were Army skydivers and while it was entertaining to watch them, it was also interesting to think that they use these skills in wars and battles around the world.  

We really had a good weekend; Caroline was blessed with lots of love and plenty of gifts and I know it was a treat for her to spend so much time with family and friends that we don't get to see often enough.  She was a little spoiled by it all and didn't want to go back to school Monday morning, but her teachers gave her a little extra love and patience and they said after about ten minutes, she was back to her old self.  

I haven't loaded all of the pictures from the weekend yet, but I'll post those soon.   

August 10, 2008

Our baby turned three today. I can hardly believe it - she is growing and learning every day and I'm not sure where these past 36 months have gone. She brings me more smiles and laughs than I ever imagined possible and shown me how much you can truly love a person. She challenges me in new ways every day too. I am learning patience and thankfulness and humility each day I'm with her. She challenges my mind and my heart as well. Her little three year old way of asking "why" makes me look deeper than my 30 year old mind often would. I have new eyes and a keen awareness of how much I need God to parent this little girl into the kind of young woman I hope she becomes, and more importantly, that God desires she become. I always "knew" that I would love my children, but I had no idea what that would look like or feel like and I don't think anyone can prepare you for how hard you fall for them, for how much you would do for them, and for all that they bring to your life.

Caroline, thank you for 36 of the most blessed months of my life. We love you our little 3 year old!

August 10, 2005

health care for the future

One of the issues that truly does concern me is that of health care and insurance in the years to come. Socialized medicine scares me (see here for one of many reasons), but obvioulsy given the rising costs of insurance and health care today and the number of employers who are opting out of offering insurance, something has to change about how we handle these isues. I read this article this morning on the subject and it gives me something to think about. (via Instapundit).

update

I just uploaded the ultrasound pictures and they are at the bottom of the ultrasound post below ("more answered prayers")!  

singer song-writer

As I think most of you know, or at least you could figure out from our blog, Caroline loves to sing and dance. She sings the classic "kid songs" that you all know and love, some new songs I didn't know before her teachers introduced them into our lives, some songs she's picked up from listening to CD's in the car (Jeff tries to expose her to a wide range of music. Her latest favorite is Tracy Chapman), some Disney songs, and of course the old-standby: Annie songs. In the past couple of days she's started making up lyrics to the tune of the songs she knows and some of my favorite "Caroline songs" are about me!


She was singing yesterday afternoon about Jeff mowing the grass and me washing the dishes and it went something like this, "Papa is mowing the grass and Mama not let me jump on the trampoline 'cause we have to clean. Caroline needs to wash the dishes, we might need to wash the dishes." Another song from yesterday came about after she had made about four or five consecutive trips to the bathroom, but she each time, she said she didn't actually need to go. She was outside with Jeff after he had finished mowing the grass and I was in the kitchen cooking dinner. I kept hearing this faint little knock on the back door. Finally, I said, "Caroline you have to sit on the potty until you go, you can't keep going back and forth between outside and the bathroom." From the bathroom I heard this little song, "Mama not let me get out the bathroom. We not keep knocking on the door. Mama not let me stand up, I have to sit." I had to laugh.


I hear that my brother Drew is quite the King of made-up lyrics, so perhaps she comes by this genetically?

more answered prayers

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Monday (even though I'm actually at about 21 weeks). The days leading up to it were filled with excitement and anxiety and nervousness. All of the fears were allayed as the ultrasound progressed though! We were thrilled to see a beating heart right away and as the sonographer (is that the right term?) went through studying the baby's anatomy, taking measurements, and running them through her computer, she did a wonderful job of explaining everything to us. She kept saying, it looks good, everything looks great, that is normal, and just generally encouraging us through the process. The baby was moving around quite a bit and at one point I even felt a kick and saw it at the same time, which was a first for me! Finally, after we were assured that all looked and measured normally, we found out that we are having another GIRL! We are all very excited, most importantly about her health, but also about Caroline having a little sister.

We are now beginning the process of choosing a name; I'm not sure whether we'll tell everyone or not before she gets here, so I'll keep you posted on that front. Caroline's suggestions for names so far are: Brother (we told her we can't name a baby girl "Brother"), Girl, and the most recent suggestion from this morning was "Fuzzy". We'll keep the process going.

I'm posting on my lunch break at work, but when I'm home I'll see if I can get some of the pictures from the ultrasound scanned in and posted here soon.

UPDATE:  Here are the pictures.  If you aren't skilled at deciphering ultrasound pictures, I can't really help you without being able to point at the picture, but I'll do my best to describe each picture below:  

This is her face!  

She'll kill us for this one day, but this is her bottom . . . It's a GIRL!  

The one on top is her leg extended - looks like she's gong to have some long legs like Caroline  The bottom two are her feet and toes.  

The top one is her right arm, bent at the elbow.  The bottom one is her right arm and her head, her hand is in a fist right next to her face.  

Thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers.  we appreciate them all.  

Answered prayers

Lately I've been reading back through an old journal of mine. It is from 2005, when I was finishing up law school, studying for the bar, preparing for Caroline's arrival, etc. I wrote just about life and what was going on, but mostly it has written prayers from my morning quiet times. As I read through the entries, starting in probably February of 2005, I was struck by often I prayed for God to give me His Peace and Strength. I must have been reading through Psalms, because often I'd write a verse or two from Psalms at the beginning or end of an entry. So many of the Psalms are cries out to God for peace and protection or thanksgiving for where He brought the writer.

Today, I read a few entries from July of 2005, which was crunch time for me as far as the bar exam goes. I was studying hard day in and day out to be ready to take the test which was the last week of July. On July 20, I wrote a short entry for asking for peace and a calm heart and wrote this verse, "For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock." Psalm 27:5.

Later that day while I was at my doctor's appointment, Jeff fell off the roof of the sorority house where my mom is the house mother. He had been cleaning leaves off of the roof and he backed up into a skylight, lost his balance and fell through to the concrete below. He apparently fell on the back of his head and his shoulder. My mom and my doctor are friends, so she called him to let me know what happened and sent one of her friends over to get me from the doctor's office to bring me to the hospital where the ambulance had brought Jeff. As I heard the news and on the ride over to the hospital, I was strangely not freaked out. As I walked into the ER waiting room and found my mom and another friend who had met her at the house when Jeff got hurt, I was struck by the look of concern on their faces, but I was strangely peaceful. Jeff spent a couple of days in the ICU and then a couple more days at the hospital in a regular room, but after recovering slowly at home, he was fine and thank the Lord, he did not sustain any permanent brain injury.

With all that I was facing late that summer, bar review, studying, the bar exam itself, moving into a new house, being pregnant in July in Louisiana (HOT), and preparing for a new person to enter our lives, PEACE was surely what I would need to get through adding my husband's accident to that mix. I had no way of knowing that in the months leading up to July 20, 2005, but I trust that God did. I've always kind of wondered why I didn't lose it when I saw Jeff in the hospital with bloody hair and a dazed look on his face. I honestly wondered if I was just delirious from so much studying and baby-thoughts that I didn't fully comprehend it, but now, looking back I think God prepared me for that day and gave me the peace I needed to get through those days.

Looking back on that has truly been an encouragement to me, I should take more time to remember God's goodness to me and I hope that each of you can do the same and get that encouragement too.

Have a great weekend!