“What’re you doooooooin, Mama?”
“I’m cooking supper, what are you doing, Micah?”
Two seconds pass.
“What’re you doooooooin, Mama?”
“Still cooking supper. What about you?”
Three seconds pass.
“What’re you doooooooin, Mama?”
A couple of weeks ago, Micah and I had that conversation 500 times a day. Literally. If I sat down, she asked. If I stood up, she asked. If I put my shoes on, she asked. If I brushed my hair, she asked. If I picked up a book, she asked.
The questioning was constant and drove me up the wall.
Now she’s moved on. She only asks me two or three times a day, but we’ve taken up another conversation in its stead.
“Somebody’s hidin’ in my woom, Mama.”
“Who’s in your room, baby?”
“A mon-ter’s in my woom.”
“There’s not a monster in your room, Micah.”
Pauses for two seconds.
“Somebody’s hidin’ in my woom, Mama.”
This conversation ensues every. single. time I ask Micah to take something to her room. The first time we had it, it made me grin. The 689th time we had it, I wanted to bang my head against the wall.
In case you can’t tell, her conversational skills are growing, even if she sounds like a broken record at times. She’s at such a fun age. Every time I turn around, it seems she’s learning something new. My jaw dropped the first time she pointed at a stop sign and told me that it was an ot-ta-gon, but really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’ve been pointing at the octagon in her Elmo lift-the-flap book for months.
If you ask her name, she’ll answer Micah Joooones. We started working on my and Dennis’ names too, just in case someone asks her who her parents are. I didn’t have much hope in teaching her my name, but she’s getting there. If you ask her my name, she’ll say Essie Ann Joooones. Poor Dennis is left out. She knows his name but refuses to say it most of the time. To her, he’s Daddy Joooones.
She loves to eat and has an appetite like her mama. There’s not much that she turns down, and it’s funny to me that if there’s broccoli on her plate, she’ll eat it before anything else. She also loves Mexican food. Girl after my own heart. And breakfast. Also one of my favorites. Sometimes she eats more than I do, which is saying something. The girl can pack it away.
She’s fascinated with the idea of being a big sister, and she insists that the new baby is a girl. Poor thing will be disappointed if Peanut turns out to be a boy. She likes to lift my shirt and look at my belly, and every now and then, she’ll talk to the baby. Melts my heart.
She’s pretty stingy about giving out kisses, but if I pretend I don’t want one, she’ll grab my face between her little hands and cover it in kisses.
I don’t want to forget her at this age. I’ll take the toddler stage over the baby stage any day. That’s not to say that toddlerhood is without challenges. Last night we had a major meltdown over brushing her teeth. And she’s obsessed with things matching. If it doesn’t match, chaos will ensue. If she’s eating an orange and the wedges fall apart before she pulls them apart, she throws a fit, but I can handle all that. The good far outweighs the bad.
I love this little girl. Can’t imagine life without her.
Until next time, grace and peace.
{print available from Red Letter Words}
Surprise, surprise. It’s me again. Look out world, I’ve posted two days in a row :)
I’ve been thinking a lot about yesterday’s post, and I realize that it could have come across as a bit, well, depressing.
Rest assured that Peanut (our temporary name for bambino numero dos) is not unwanted. To the contrary, we have talked about Peanut since before Micah was born. Peanut is most definitely wanted and loved. That said, Peanut’s emergence into our lives is unexpected and unplanned at the moment.
And in case you were wondering, unplanned pregnancy is hard. Period. Yes, this child is a blessing, and I am thankful that we have the means to care for and nurture Peanut. I am overwhelmed by the idea that God has entrusted yet another human being to our care, and yet, now that I’ve had a few months to get used to the idea, our lives would somehow be incomplete without this baby. This unplanned, unexpected baby is most certainly loved and wanted.
And so, life goes on. I am adjusting to the idea that Micah will be a big sister soon – even if I have absolutely no idea where Peanut is going to sleep. We’ve got some time to figure all that out.
I’m also learning that there’s some wisdom in adding “God willing,” to all your future plans. God willing, Peanut will arrive into this world a happy and healthy child. God willing, Micah will be the best big sister there ever was. And God willing, Dennis and I will be the kind of parents that God created us to be.
Until next time (God willing), grace and peace.
Seeing as how my last post was on October 26 and lots of life has happened between now and then, I thought it was only fitting to re-enter the blogging world with a little recap of the last couple of months of 2011. I know, we’re almost halfway through January, and I’m late to the looking back game, but that’s just how life is at the moment.
You may (or may not) remember that I started off 2011 with some lofty goals of cultivating both discipline and intentionality in my life. I established some good habits and by and large did very well for the first 10 months of the year.
Then I got pregnant.
Yes, you read that right.
I am with child.
See? The picture says so.
Baby number two is set to arrive in early July, and the news came as a great shock to me. The planner in me reeled from the fact that God’s plans differed so drastically from my own, and I’m still not completely used to the idea that there will be another little kiddo in our house come July. It’s a big change that I’ve not yet adjusted to.
Thankfully, God provides nine months to get over the shock. I’m still working on it :)
I’m one of the lucky ones who doesn’t really get sick when I’m pregnant, but what I lack in nausea, I make up for in exhaustion. The end of 2011 found me pretty lackluster, which meant that many of my lofty goals got shoved to the side.
Not making excuses – just being honest.
For the most part, I’ve kept the news offline because I just wasn’t ready for it to be real, but in an attempt to actually deal with reality, I’m putting it out there for all of you to see.
The place I’m in at the moment is difficult. I want to be thankful and excited about this baby, but right now it’s hard. And that makes me feel guilty, because I know that children are a gift from God. I also have entirely too many friends who have struggled with infertility to be flippant about this. We’ve always wanted more than one child…
This just isn’t when I thought it would happen.
And that’s really the heart of the issue. Because I’m a control freak, it drives me crazy to be reminded that I am not, in fact, in control. God is. He always has been. He always will be.
It’s not always easy to conform your own will to the will of God. This is a truth that I’m learning all over again.
I put all this out there for the sake of honesty. When it comes to babies and parenting and life in general, I’m afraid that we glaze over the difficult parts and put on a plastic smile far too often. But when we do that, we rob ourselves, and each other, of the authenticity that we desperately need.
So here’s to being authentic. And the arrival of the second trimester, which, so far, has brought more energy. Hopefully, that means I’ll be around more often.
Until next time, grace and peace.
This one turned two on September 17. It seems like this second year has passed more quickly than the first, and every time I flip through pictures from Christmas or even Easter, I marvel at how much my little girl has grown up. Last year I had a baby. This year I have a toddler.
At two years old, Micah is quite a character. Every day I marvel at how quickly she’s learning things. New words abound these days, and she simply amazes me. I think she’s pretty smart. She can count to three (and sometimes four or five), she knows most of her colors (although her favorite is pink), and she’s pretty good at shapes. Each day when I pick her up from preschool and talk to her about her day, I’m blown away by the fact that we can have actual conversations.
She’s a sweet girl, but she’s also got a mind of her own. She’s not above throwing a temper tantrum, but I think she’s learning that her Mama’s more stubborn than she is. She’s stingy with her kisses and only gives them out at bedtime, when she makes sure everyone gets their nighttime sugar.
She loves to read and sometimes sleeps with her books. Just like her Mama.
Her newest phrase is “Okie Dokie,” which she must have picked up at preschool. She says it all the time. Melts my heart.
Her birthday was on a Saturday, and now she thinks all birthdays are on Saturday. All cake is “Happy Cake” which is what she calls birthday cake, and ever since her birthday, she’s been kind of obsessed with singing Happy Birthday, but she always leaves out the word birthday. Micah’s version of the song goes something like this:
….Happy….to you….
….Happy….to you….
….Happy….to you….
Until she gets tired of singing it.
And did I mention that she loves Elmo? That’s probably putting it mildly. I think she’d marry him tomorrow if she could.
She’s pretty fond of Mickey Mouse, too.
I love this little girl more every day. I’m so thankful that God trusted me enough to be her mommy, and I pray that she grows into a woman who pursues Him with abandon. I can’t wait to see what He has in store for her.
Until next time, grace and peace.
It’s a rainy Labor Day around these parts. Tropical Storm Lee has dumped buckets and buckets of rain on us over the past 24 hours. It’s wet.
Which means that we’ve had a lazy holiday listening to the raindrops fall on our red tin roof.
No complaints from me. In honor of our rainy day, I thought I’d post a few snapshots from another rainy day. Last week we had a freak afternoon monsoon. It lasted about fifteen minutes, and after the deluge passed, I let Micah play in the drizzle that remained.
The twinkle in her eye ought to tell you how much fun she had splashing around. She’s a mess, that one is. So lively. Always up for adventure. Full of wonderment and curiosity.
We had a visitor on the porch. After Micah caught sight of him, she spent the next 30 minutes saying bud, which, of course, means bug. I’m sure it was the funniest looking bug she’d ever seen.
Yesterday, I knelt down to hold her and saw the world through her eyes for just a moment. Things look different from the perspective of an almost two-year-old. She’s given me a renewed sense of childlike wonder, something I didn’t know I so desperately needed.
She’s also taught this high-strung mama that it’s OK to loosen up and play in the rain every now and then. Feet can be wiped and clothes can be dried. The memories created are more than worth a little bit of cleanup.
Seriously. What would my life be like without this moment?
I can’t imagine.
Until next time, grace and peace.
