Something to make us happy

You know those days of 3 year old-ish-ness that make you want to tear your hair out? Sometimes it lasts all day, sometimes it's just a moment or two....but nonetheless, it's hard. Yesterday we had some of those moments. You see, Sophie doesn't like to wake up. Period. Whether it's in the morning or after a nap (once every blue moon these happen), she's cranky. I've learned to leave her in her room in the mornings for quite a while after she wakes, to give her time to sort of ease into the idea of being awake. It kind of works. But anyways, yesterday she took a power nap in the car and woke up, well, extremely cranky. And once she enters this zone of crankiness, it's mighty hard to turn the boat around. Crying about anything and everything, she'll tell you she wants something then immediately screams "No, no, no! I don't like that!" when you try to fulfill her request. She wants to be held (oh won't this be fun in two months after baby #2 is born), but she doesn't want a hug. She wants something to eat, but when you offer up choices, everything is a no. On my good, rested, I can do anything days, I'm able to laugh about the ridiculousness of her mood. Yesterday, I was a little too exhausted for laughing. So instead, in the calmest voice I could muster, I got down to her level, looked her straight in the eye and said "Sophie, WHAT would make you happy right now???". I fully expected her to scream "Nothing!" and cry even louder. But instead, she paused, looked right back at me, and said "My Care Bears". Wow. An easy solution. All three aforementioned items were ten feet from us on the floor, so I politely suggested she go get them. This brought about more tears as she demanded I get them for her. My patience had reached its limit. "No", I said, "if you want your Care Bears, they are right there...you can go get them." Tears, drama, more insanity. But I wasn't going to budge. She had two legs and was fully capable of getting them herself. End of story. The clouds finally parted at some point that evening and we reached a level of acceptable normalcy. I don't remember what actually happened to get us there, but we arrived.

Tonight, as we stood in the living room together, Sophie asked me quietly "Mommy, what are you doing with your eyes?". "I'm crying because I'm sad," I said. She gave me one of the most tender hugs, and then said "Maybe there is something that can make you happy. Maybe my Care Bear can make you happy!" and she ran off into the other room. Seconds later, she appeared with her most beloved Care Bear (Funshine...the yellow one) and with a huge grin on her face, offered it and another hug to me as I wiped my tears. At this point the origin of my tears had turned from sadness to extreme pride and love for my moody yet thoughtful daughter. I am overwhelmed with joy, and SHE is something that makes me incredibly happy.

Girl vs Boy

No, this post is not about what you think it's about.... but we'll get to that in a minute. First of all, can I just say that our daughter's natural sleep schedule is crazy? The only reason I am able to write this post right now is because she's still sleeping. It's 9:30am. And this is not abnormal. Ever since we took the binkie away, a month and a half ago, she's been on a nap strike (as in a total of 2 naps in that entire span of time). One would think that a no-napping toddler would be exhausted by the end of the day and fall asleep quickly. Oh no. She talks in her crib most nights from 8:00 until 9:00, 10:00, sometimes even 11:00....THEN, she sleeps until well past most play dates have begun. Don't even get me started on how many eye rolls and disgusted looks I've gotten when I've divulged Sophie's late morning sleeping (she's always leaned in this general direction of late nights and late mornings), and overall I am entirely grateful for her schedule, but it strains relationships even more so when we can't make it to play dates because of this!!! Okay, venting over... on to the real reason for this post.

Today is our 20 week ultrasound. And while we're excited to see the baby, find out if all is going well, etc, etc, we've decided to not find out the gender of the baby this time around. I'm so happy we're doing this and going to keep it a surprise until the very end. SO...what's really been plaguing me on the girl vs boy spectrum is not baby #2, but Sophie. You see, we're about to transition her to a big girl bed (I know, I know... this is much later than most kids, but she LOVES her crib and we've had no reason until now to move her out). We're choosing to do a c-section with baby #2 (and not a VBAC), and so in anticipation of not being able to lift her into the crib, the big girl bed is imperative. While viewing bedding online at my parents house the other day, with Sophie in my lap, my mom and I found lots of cute options that more or less matched her already existing pink walls and curtains. Sophie didn't comment too much on them, but when she spotted down in the corner a very tiny picture from the "boys bedding" section of Lightning McQueen (from the movie "Cars"), she went crazy. "Lightning!!!! Lightning!!!" she crooned. My mom gave a little sigh and clicked on the picture for her, but said "This bed is for boys, Soph". My daughter looked crushed. We tried to quickly show her pictures of other character bedding, like Tinkerbell and Cinderella, but she just kept saying "I want a Lightning bed". Yesterday, while getting her up from her no-nap, I mentioned how exciting it was going to be for her to get her big girl bed soon, and she looked at me very seriously and whispered, "I want a Lightning bed. It's for boys. But I want Lightning." I just about cried. Who am I to tell her that she can't have something just because it's in the boys section? (Okay, I DID tell her she couldn't have boy underwear from target when she found the Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Tank Engine ones). But bedding? Am I really going to be THAT parent? Do I want to start sending her the message so early on that she's a girl and limited to girl things? This can extend into territory that I don't think neither Tim nor I really want to venture into. And thus we're left with a dillema. Satisfy her little hearts desire and let her get Lightning McQueen (And repaint her walls??? Red and pink are great for valentine's day, but I don't think I could handle it every day of the year), or persuade her to at least go for the dog and kitty cat - PINK - bedding. Much to my own dismay, I'm leaning towards Lightning, but we'll see what happens this weekend at Target. This girl beats to her own drum. And I for one think we should be encouraging that.

Babies

I was going through a pile of papers today and found this.... a quote that was cut out and sent to us by a family member when Sophie was born. It's one I must share.

"When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies." ~ E.T. Sullivan

Merry Christmas!

In case you were wondering, she asked Santa for "purple lollipops, marshmallows, and Nemo". :)

Where's The Line to See Jesus...

I know Melissa has more or less taken over "my", I mean..."our" family blog, but I thought this Christmas Song captured one of the challenges that many of us have as parents. How do we capture the true meaning of Christmas along with all the childlike wonder our children have of Santa, Christmas trees and reindeer.

Look up Becky Kelley- Where's The Line To See Jesus- Official Music Video on You Tube
-or-
Go to the link below and read the story behind the song.

http://wheresthelinetoseejesus.com/

Merry Christmas,
Tim

Snapshots

I've been in such an introspective, bloggish mood lately that I haven't posted any pictures in a while. Here's a few, going all the way back to August. Oh, you know.... those summer days when sandals were the only shoes in the closet, play time was spent outside in the sun, and my little girl turned two.

These salt water sandals are definitely browner now than they are in this picture, but nonetheless, I'm declaring them to be one of the pairs of shoes I'll keep as a reminder of her toddler days. Adorable.

On to Fall, and "teaching" her about Halloween. She LOVED getting books from the library about pumpkins, costume parties, and trick or treating.

We painted pumpkins and Sophie was in heaven.
Jeremy got to join us for our Halloween fun. I'm so grateful that we take the time to take pictures like these....

After a bath for Sophie (her Mickey Mouse shirt sadly never recovered), we had a yummy chili dinner to celebrate my parents' birthdays.

Pumpkin Patch!

I picked up a few pumpkins from my parents' garden, along with a wildly rambunctious yet incredibly adorable little 2 year old.

Hausfrau Musings

I read this the other day in a book I'm reading, and I felt compelled to share. (I'm assuming most of you are like me and don't know a word of German, so I'll tell you in advance... hausfrau means housewife.)

"I think it's because there is a hausfrau amnesia - some magical mind eraser that blots out the struggles we experience on a daily basis. I believe it's the only way we can get out of bed in the morning and do it all over again. It's also why our species survives. But those struggles are precisely what we need to keep in mind, because our voices are lost when we don't tell the stories that make up our days." ~ Nicole Chaison, The Passion of the Hausfrau

Thank you to those of you out there who aren't afraid to tell the real stories behind being a parent. It's why I love blogs like www.rantsfrommommyland.com - although I don't personally know the two moms who write it, they're honest, funny and completely down-to-earth. Parenting is ridiculously hard. And I for one don't like it when I feel like I'm the only one who'll admit to that.

I'm apologizing now for all the blog posts in the past that have just shown pictures with one or two descriptive sentences. They were done that way because of a lack of time.... not a desire to deceive or share the real stories. Because what you don't know is that right after that "Sophie's first swim class" picture was snapped (this is coming soon, I promise), Sophie refused to do anything the teacher instructed and cried crocodile tears for 20 minutes. Immediately following the "Willamette Jet Boat Excursion" picture, we removed her life jacket to find a red blotchy rash all over her neck. Tim wanted to tell the boat driver to clean their jackets more frequently. I reminded him it was the WILLAMETTE river we were just drenched with. My germophobic side wanted to break down and sob on the spot.

The conclusion is this: I appreciate when your stories are shared..... the real, unedited stories. It makes me feel less alone in this hausfrau world.