Merry Christmas!

Sweet Caroline

So I sing the song of love for Julia . . .

We would like to say . . .

Caroline's First Day of Preschool

Caroline is going to The Primer School, a small preschool that's actually in a little house in a nearby neighborhood. There are three classes of 8 four-year-olds in the little house, and they attend 3 days a week. I was afraid that she would not want to go when the first day came because her previous school experience (the school she attended when I used to work at the courthouse) was not a positive one for her, but when I dropped her off at Primer, she hopped out and didn't look back. And I was excited for her to start on her new adventure!


Little sister managed to rouse herself out of bed to see big sister off, too.

Random bits and pieces

- I know I need to put birthday pictures up here . . . it's just that I was so busy during the party that I didn't take any. My mom put some up on Shutterfly, but my technically challenged self does not know how to save them to my computer in a way that will look any good. I think my neighbor has some, so I need to get a disc and get her to copy them for me. Hopefully soon!

- Julia figured out how to click her tongue Wednesday. It is so funny. She just crawls all around making that clicking noise the whole way.

- This one is for you, Amy TK and Gretch: Julia LOVES the Dell "Lollipop" commercial. We can be engrossed in blocks or whatever with our backs completely turned toward the TV, but upon the first couple notes of that commercial (you know ... "Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lollipop"), she whips her little head around so fast to see those laptops! Last night we kept rewinding the DVR to see her do it again and again. Easily entertained, yes we are.

- Our MANY hours spent at Chick-fil-a are paying off in the manners department, at least. When I tell Caroline, "Thank you," she has started to respond, "My pleasure." It's hilarious to hear a four-year-old say that. And since no one really says that in real life, I know she learned it at Chick-fil-a. Just another entry on a long list of reasons why I love that place.

Randoms over for today -- hope to return to your regularly scheduled postings soon!

What was I thinking?

I'm going to have to go off the grid for a bit while I make twelve tutus for Caroline's birthday party. I thought it would take about 30 minutes each -- HAHAHAHAHA! More like 3 hours each. So you know what I'll be doing in all my spare time the next 13 days. This would be what you might call "biting off more than I can chew."

To sleep, perchance to dream?

Julia really is a fairly good sleeper. Well, all I have to compare her to is Caroline, who quite possibly might have been the worst sleeper ever. She had to be rocked or swung to sleep every night, and we usually got her to take naps by driving her around in the car. Julia, on the other hand, can go to sleep on her own and doesn't like to be rocked to sleep. She fusses for a little bit, rubs her face into the bed, usually scooches her head into a corner of the crib, and then goes to sleep. (After which I go into her room, scoot her back into the middle of the crib, and turn her head a little bit to the side . . . makes me feel a little better knowing there is some space for her to get some air!) She can nap for a good long while except, if I leave her door unattended, I find this:



Caught in the act! Of course I have tried to explain to Caroline that JuJu cannot sleep if she climbs into the crib too, and I have told her to stay out of the baby's room while she's napping, but you can see what good that does. So now, if Caroline even takes a step in the direction of Julia's room, I immediately start with the "Do not go into your sister's room!" To which Caroline innocently replies, "I'll not get into the crib, Mama." (Yes, she really says "I'll not" -- I have no idea why she says that instead of "I won't," and I don't know where she heard it, but it's cute to hear that come out of a three-year-old's mouth.) She continues, "I'm just going to check on the baby." Yeah right kid, I'm not as dumb as I look. But who can resist some sisterly love:


As for Caroline herself these days, she still has a hard time going to sleep most nights. Now she's queen of procrastination ("Wait! I need some water! Please just one more little story? Come open my door just a little more!") Usually Jason handles the bedtime for her b/c I'm feeding Julia. But when it's up to me, I just tell her that she can talk to her animals as much as she wants as long as she does not come out of her room. I know that she'll go to sleep eventually. You can lead a horse to the bed but you can't make him go to sleep, so to speak. Anyway, my philosophy led to this scene one night:

At least Bobo the sheep, Dora, Winnie the Pooh, and her baby are comfortable. Apparently no one requires a pillow or covers. Hey, it's a hot summer this year.

Julia - Seven and a half months (yeah, yeah, I missed the seven-month mark)

So June had lots going on for us and was such a crazy month I missed taking that seven-month picture. I was a little sad that I didn't get it accomplished, but we are all happier when we have a busy schedule (every morning Caroline asks me, "Where are we goin' today, Mommy?") and I try to enjoy the moments as they come and impress them on my heart, even if I don't get as many pictures as I would like. So here are some pictures of Julia at seven and a half months:

I put this last one in because that's the way Jujy rolls now -- not ever in one place for long, always ready to crawl off! She made a few tentative crawling moves at 7 months 1 week old, and in the last week or so she has really figured out how to move! She is really good about entertaining herself now (if she is not hungry or tired) -- one afternoon she played happily on the floor with her toys for a whole hour and a half. But once I stepped out of the room to put some laundry in the dryer and start a new load in the washing machine, she started crawling off down the hallway looking for me. She wants to be where the action is, I guess!

I also just love her little shoes that she's wearing. I like Robeez because they are so flexible (good for little feet that are learning to stand and walk), nearly impossible to kick off, washable, and just so darn cute! I almost got her some with a little brunette princess on them (like her), but I could not resist these butterfly ones. I remember her big sister in Robeez too and cannot believe how fast time flies.

Julia's had a busy time since she turned seven months old. She started to get to a sitting position on her own (without the tripod for support), went to her first Vacation Bible School, went down the slide at the park for the first time, and started to crawl! She laughs and squeals and just observes things all the time. I think it might be a little hard on Caroline because she has started to talk baby talk quite a bit, and she's quick to say "Look at me!" if Julia gets cheered for something. Sometimes she feels generous and shares with Julia, but more often if she sees Julia holding something of hers, she runs over and takes it away. I am trying hard to give her attention and recognize the things she does too, but I think these are the beginnings of some natural sibling rivalry that I won't be able to praise away. Oh well, my sister & I once had a swordfight with hot curling irons, so I know a thing or two about sibling rivalry. And we turned out fine.

Julia - 6 months (a month and a half ago, I know)

So I saw this done on other people's blogs and I wanted to try it for Julia too -- taking a picture of her each month to show how she grows throughout her first year. I got on the bandwagon too late, however, and I missed the first half of the year. So I just started at six months and here she is back in May, six months old:



May was the month when things started to pick up for JuJu. She finally started to stay sitting up by herself once placed in a sitting position (albeit like a frog or a tripod, leaning on her hands between her legs for support) at 6 months 1 week. A few days later she started rocking back and forth on all fours, along with lots of squealing and drooling! I introduced fruits this month, but she doesn't want any part of that. I remember that Caroline liked the vegs better too. JuJu was getting pretty long for the baby tub, so she got to graduate to the big bathtub:


She also started grabbing everything in sight. Sometimes I sit her on the counter in her Bumbo as I get ready in the mornings if she gets too fussy on the floor, and she immediately starts knocking down everything on the countertop. Sit her at the table, and she's going for your plate, cup, food -- whatever she can get her little hands on. That's how we got this picture:

What a good little helper already!

Caroline had a full month too with her dance recital and the end of gymnastics, preschool choir, and Mission Friends for the year. We went to the lake with our young adult Sunday school department, and Caroline got rides on a boat AND a Sea Doo! Julia put her swimsuit on too and took a dip for the first time in her little life. And that was our May!

Ballerina Girl

When I became a mother, one of the areas of parenthood that I was not sure how to navigate was activities. As in, how do I decide what kinds of things Caroline should do? The list of possibilities is seemingly endless: soccer, T-ball, piano lessons, art classes, gymnastics, dance, violin lessons, Girl Scouts, swimming, tennis, golf . . . you get the drift. Growing up in a small town, I didn't have a wide variety of opportunities for extracurricular activities, and what opportunities there were, everybody participated in them. So I don't recall any dilemma, really, about what to choose. I just did what everyone else did.

In the city, however, there are all kinds of things to do, and I guess you can get your kids involved in as many activities as your schedule -- and your wallet -- will allow. I decided that I would introduce Caroline to several diverse activities and then watch to see what she gravitates toward. She took Kindermusik until she was old enough to start preschool choir at church, and we've done swimming lessons at the Y. But I knew that it was time to start looking for dance lessons when we watched the movie "The Game Plan," which contained several ballet scenes; when the ballet came on, Caroline would flit and float around the room and try to dance like the girls on the TV. It was obviously something that interested her!

I settled on Jo-Ann's Little Dancers, and we started in September. Caroline's instructor is a sweet college student named Miss Laura, and she teaches tap and ballet to the class of five little girls aged three to five years old. There was a Christmas recital (not a full-blown recital with costumes -- the girls wore black leotards and their own Christmas sweaters), but I didn't have Caroline participate in it because it wasn't even a month after Julia's birth and I was still trying to get my bearings. I didn't think that Caroline would even notice, but one night she came out from class with a sad face and told me, "I want to be in the show. I wish I could be in the show." I felt so awful. I promised her that she would be in the spring show for sure.

So, the spring show this year was held the afternoon of Mother's Day. I stayed up late the night before gluing Caroline's headpieces, taking up her ballet skirt, sewing the straps on her leotard, labeling her shoes, and taking care of all the other little details that needed to be done. I really was excited about Caroline's first recital!

The first number that Caroline's class performed was a tap dance to "Winnie the Pooh." Here is her tap costume; I was sad that the fringe got all tangled up because I had spent a lot of time the night before making sure that it was all untangled! I guess in the hustle and bustle of backstage changing, it got a little wild. Oh well, I thought she still looked cute.




Here are some action shots:



And here is a shot of Caroline taking an impromptu solo venture downstage. I think she enjoyed the spotlight!

The girls' ballet dance was to another Winnie the Pooh song, "Little Black Raincloud." The girls danced this one with umbrellas. It was so sweet that I thought I would just burst with all the cuteness.

I'm just a little black rain cloud/Hovering under the honey tree

I'm just a little black rain cloud/Pay no attention to little me

Everyone knows that a rain cloud/Never eats honey, no not a nip

I'm just floating around, over the ground/Wondering where I will drip

Twirling the umbrella

Sweet little dancers

In the following picture, Caroline is twirling the umbrella while she taps her little pointed foot on the ground. My mom, who had driven in with my dad from Perryton to see the recital, told Caroline that it was so cute when she tapped her little foot. "No!" Caroline told her. "It's not tapping, it's pointing!" Now every single time that she sees the following picture or watches the video of this dance, she has to inform us that she is not tapping her toe, she's pointing it. She can be pretty particular that way! It's one of the little things that makes her our Caroline, and I love her for it.

At the end of the show, all the dancers came back on stage, got their little awards, and sang the little song "Skidamarink a dinky dink." And just like that, the show was over. I got sad thinking, that's it -- never again will Caroline be in the youngest class of dancers at the recital. Time is passing so quickly, and I love watching her grow into the person she's becoming, but I also wish that I could slow moments like these down a little and live in them a little while longer. I guess that's why I'm trying to blog more -- so that I can better remember these special moments of being a mommy. I made a big and scary decision fourteen months ago to take a break in my career to stay home for a couple of years to raise my girls while they are small, and while I am still quite worried about whether the legal world will take me back after my "sabbatical," one thing I do know for sure: I am thankful for all the time I have gotten to spend with my sweet little girls, and I'll never regret it.

From the fullness of his grace

we have all received one blessing after another.

John 1:16

Well, it's official: I'm old.

I found my first gray hair this morning. Jason tried hard to convince me that it was blond, not gray ("It's the same color as your hair at the bottom!" -- i.e., the old highlighted hair that's growing out -- that did not make me feel any better, by the way). But there's no denying it, I'm getting gray hair.

Hear that? That's the creaking of my knee as I lower one foot into the grave . . . .

There's a party in my tummy . . .

Well, so much for that posting-every-week thing. Sorry!

Anyway, around the third week of April, I looked at the calendar and realized that maybe I should start thinking about giving Julia some solid food since she was coming up on 5 1/2 months old. With Caroline, we were so excited to start solids; I believe she was 4 1/2 months when we started cereal with her and right at 5 months with sweet potatoes. Well, poor Julia, time just flies this time around and I wasn't anticipating it as much this time -- probably now because I know what a mess it makes and I'm not looking forward to cleaning that up! It's so much easier just to sit down and nurse whenever we feel like it. But I can't keep her a little baby forever, so I decided to break out the rice cereal the next week. And man, did she like it! She kept diving for the spoon so much that it was hard to get it in her mouth:

Look at that tongue!

(I love how she's holding her toes in this one)

Looks like she's an eater like her mom & dad, but seriously . . . she likes rice cereal? I bet it tastes like cardboard. No, I haven't tasted it. In fact, I have not tasted any of that baby stuff -- no formula, no breastmilk, no baby food has passed or will ever pass these lips. I know lots of moms that do taste the stuff, and hats off to them, but I can't screw up the courage and I figure, if the baby's eating it, that's fine with me -- I don't need to jump in on the action. Curiosity won't kill this cat.

"I like it, Mom!"

It was so different from Caroline's experience. Here Caroline is in December 2005 upon her first taste of rice cereal:

Obviously, she was not a fan. We tried it only a few times and then went to the jarred food. I did try another kind of cereal (oat, I think), but she did only marginally better with that. So no more cereal for her! But her baby sister eats a bowl every morning. They are definitely different girls -- Julia so far has been more laid back than Caroline ever was, although Julia isn't exactly a shrinking violet herself (little kids typically like to come talk to her when we're out in public, and they're always amazed at how loudly she can scream)! But I think they'll still be sweet sisters. I know I was (and still am) very different from my younger sister, but I'm blessed to have her and I love her lots. I think my girls feel the same way:

Bluebonnets!

A few days ago, Jason had the fabulous idea to load up the fam and drive to the country for some bluebonnet viewing. Somewhere in the recesses of my memory I recalled that there was a bluebonnet trail around here somewhere, so . . .

After checking the Ennis Convention and Visitors Bureau's website, I found that the town was conveniently holding its bluebonnet festival this weekend too! So we shared the idea with Caroline, who proclaimed that "it's not bluebonnet festival, it's bluebonnet day," and that we would get a chocolate milkshake as we looked at the bluebonnets. Alrighty then.

First stop was the festival for a quick pickup of the bluebonnet trails map. The quick stop turned into an hour and a half of bounce housing, shopping, pony and whale riding, and corn dog and kettle corn eating.

"I call this pony Princess!"

Whale riding, Ennis bluebonnet festival style

Sweet Julia, having fun just watching with her daddy

After the festival stuff, were were off to see some bluebonnets and take some pictures! This Panhandle girl didn't see bluebonnets until she was a college student at Baylor, and I could never understand why it's the state flower of Texas if you can't see it in Perryton (hey, Perryton is part of Texas too!!). But now that I've seen it, I do love bluebonnet season . . . the beautiful azure sea of flowers tipped with little white caps . . . the way they appear seemingly out of nowhere in meadows, in neighbors' flower beds, and alongside even the busiest of highways . . . popping up nearly always around Easter time, serving as yet another reminder of God's continuous renewal and everlasting love for us. And today I got to smell the perfume of a field of bluebonnets -- I'd never smelled that before, but it's wonderful!

So we got the kids out and tried to take some pictures of some moderately willing subjects -- here's a couple:

Caroline kept wanting to get back into the car to watch Mary Poppins on her DVD player. At 3 years old, she's already bored with Mom & Dad's plans! Caroline can already make the words "Dad" or "Mom" into three-syllable words. Three going on thirteen, I guess! I can remember being a kid and wanting to read my book rather than look out the window, so I decided to respect her wishes and didn't insist that she watch field after field of flowers at 35 mph (I can see how that might be a little boring for a preschooler after the first 10 minutes or so). So as we drove, JuJu slept, Caroline watched her movie, and Jason and I rolled down the windows, enjoyed the countryside, and talked.

Caroline loves to watch movies -- just like her daddy!

We found another field near the end of our drive with bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and got a few more pictures by informing Caroline that her posing was a condition precedent to acquiring the chocolate milkshake. JuJu didn't even bother to get out of her carseat at this stop; she was obviously over all the picture taking too.

Beautiful field of flowers

More pictures? Seriously?

One last stop on the way home: Kincaid's for burgers and fries, as well as for that bluebonnet day chocolate milkshake!

It's been a long, long time . . .

Well, I see that it's been over a year since we have made an entry on our blog. You might think it's because of the boringness . . . but no, it's been a very eventful year. I have been composing this post in my head for a long time, and there was so much I wanted to say about my journey over the last year and a half, and maybe I'll write more in the future about that. But for now, suffice it to say that I stopped blogging around September 2007, when I learned after about ten months of trying to have another baby that I had a blocked fallopian tube. I was devastated and really went through a period of despair. But I have several friends who have been on this journey, and from some of them I got a recommendation for a good doctor who, with lots of pills and injections (and the answered prayers of our gracious God), helped us to get pregnant again! And now we have a sister for Caroline: Julia Elizabeth, born on November 14, 2008!

We're starting this blog back up again (hopefully with some amount of semi-regularity) because it's been very crazy over the past year, and I find that I don't remember things that have happened even a month or two ago (lack of sleep and utter disorganization will do that to you, I guess). So I hope this will be a way to capture my memories while at the same time sharing our lives with friends and family, both here and far away. Plus, I think this blog is linked on a few of my friends' blogs, and I don't want them to delete me :) Our lives are pretty busy now, maybe a bit less boring than they used to be . . . but definitely blessed beyond measure.

Home from the hospital, our first family picture - November 17, 2008