Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend Joel had a four day weekend, which was AMAZING! It's always fun to have him around for longer than his typical two days off. It felt like a mini vacation, but it's always sad when the last day rolls around.


We enjoyed lot's of time staying up late, listening to R.C. Sproul, eating, and talking. Then Saturday rolled around and we decided to finally take Sophia to the Georgia Aquarium, which boasts to be the largest aquarium in the world. Joel liked it, but the Chicagoan in him still loves the Shedd Aquarium more.

I was skeptical of how much attention Sophia would pay.  

Well, let's just say that I wasn't prepared to have my mind blown. 

She had such a great time! She giggled, stared, banged on the glass, and waved at the fish. She skipped her nap and enjoyed the view. I thought she would give us a hard time but it was easy peasy! I was having such a great time but the "deployment cloud" hung high over my head. I know it's still a season away but I can't help and think of it. I got a little teary eyed as we watched the uber cheesy dolphin show. I was thinking of how much fun we were having and how soon he will be gone. Then I had to snap myself out of it and appreciate the joy we were experiencing now!!!

Now, I will just enjoy my husband until tomorrow morning where the routine starts all over again!!! 

honestly frustrated

I don't know how to be honest with myself about the feelings of frustration I've had to deal with. This is something I wish someone told me about. I know they said motherhood would be hard, but I never really gave this a second thought. It was always in the back of my mind but not something that I really meditated on.

I love my daughter beyond words, she's one of the greatest things to ever happen to me! She brings me so much love and joy every single day. When she was born it was pure bliss, seriously- I hardly slept! I was so enamored with this precious little baby. She was born with a full head of beautiful brown hair and big brown eyes- I was so in love!

Now that she is seven months old, crawling, and exploring the world of shrieking and frustration- well now it's a different ball game. I wish someone would have told me that this was normal, that this didn't make me a bad mother. That sometimes wanting to just "sit" was normal, we all get tired after all!

I admit there are times, like two nights ago, that are totally wrong but it happens to all of us. Sophia woke up from her nap, and I popped in a workout video thinking she would be okay to play through it. WRONG. She kinda whined and moaned through the first ten minutes and I Was SO frustrated because I knew she didn't want anything! A few minutes later I felt beyond horrible because I knew it was just my selfishness. It's all perspective and heart after all. We have good days and we have bad days, but it all depends on how *I* feel because she never really does anything different (unless she's teething). She's a sweet little baby just trying to communicate her frustrations, she doesn't know that whining all day is draining to mommy's ears :) 

This may seem stupid to some because she's only seven months but I shut the video off and talked to her. I told her I was sorry for being selfish and thanked God for showing me that. I was feeling drained and just played with her instead, that's all she wanted. I hope that as she gets older I will be able to communicate my failures and sin in hopes of her coming to understand grace.

attempting

this weekend we attempted to take a few "family" photos.
Which really means: sticking our cam on top of the ledge above the fire place, adjusting to a self timer with multiple shots, and running to get back in place! 

 

I love the picture above. It's a perfect description of Joel's personality without saying a thing. He's always silly, always happy, and always makes us smile. He's constantly cracking jokes, and i love it! 

Mother's Day turned out to be a lot more than I really expected. I had a great time sleeping in, eating foods that went straight to my waist, and having tons of coffee. It was a perfect weekend, after we got over our rough start. 

Mothers Day

As my first Mother's Day approaches I'm flooded with all of the memories that I have stored in my heart and I can't keep them straight. It's been seven long, beautiful, challenging, life altering months. Motherhood has been everything and nothing I thought it would be.

I've stayed up countless nights feeding a baby, changing dirty diapers, and in the process crying myself because I just want to cuddle under the covers. I've stared in amazement into the eyes of the most beautiful brown haired little girl and had my eyes flood with joyful tears because she's here, she loves me, and she is OURS.

Sophia was born at 2:48 a.m. after about 18 hours of labor. I pushed for 15 minutes and she was here. I was terrified because I thought I would push for a lot longer, I wasn't ready to be a Mom yet- I still had another hour or two!!! The moment that the nurse placed her onto my chest, I gasped, looked at Joel and just cried. That moment in time was perfect, God gave us a little blessing. He allowed us to raise a little girl in the fear of the Lord. Do you know how SCARY, wonderful, & amazing that is?

I have the responsibility to raise her and teach her about God. I know I will fail her, make her upset, and let her down, but I'm glad to know that's not where our hope is, we grow with grace in the Hope of our Lord. I hope some day that God will soften her heart and make her see Him as Savior. I hope we will share the greatest common love anyone can ever share.

This weekend has come not in a way that I expected it. She's been sick for 2 weeks and I'm so drained, stressed, and tired. I thought that I would be excited, we would go to dinner, and I'd have a great weekend. To be honest, I just want to sleep :) Happy Mothers Day!!!!

Soli Deo Gloria!

selfless

This week, I am learning about being selfless. Little Sophia is battling a cold for 2 1/2 weeks now. It has developed into a double ear infection, bronchiolitis, and diarrhea- ouch! She's been waking up 1-2 hours earlier and battling every nap, when she does finally go down: her coughing wakes her up!

I am tired and she is cranky to say the least. I am learning to be selfless with  my time & my sleep! It's so hard to not WANT to go crawl under the covers and just sleep. I have to keep remind myself that if I'm feeling cranky and tired, she must be feeling 10x's worse. Please keep us in your prayers for a speedy recovery and a patient loving Mommy.

In other news: Sophia is crawling!!! She is getting into EVERYTHING! She wants to eat every power cord she can, including but not limited to: PlayStation control charger, Daddy's cell phone charger, Mommy's computer charger, & her monitor. It's been challenging running after her, but very fun to see her chubby little legs go!

Enjoy the photo bomb of her being a little trouble maker!!!

 

So Mommy had to strap me into my car seat to feed me because I kept rolling and crawling everywhere! Then she left me in there for 20 minutes so she could have a cup of coffee!!! 

 

Mommy built me a fort of pillows! It's the fluffiest fort I ever did see!!!

MMM Mommies water is so yummy

 Hello bloggers! I shall tell you about my day...

 Oh no! I've been caught! this is my naughty face !!!

Okay, good bye!!!!!!

Pooped

Today we have no cute pictures, because it wasn't a cute day. Sophia had one of her diva days. She woke up moody, which then made me moody. Some days she needs some extra lovin, it just so happened that it was today, when Joel was working a 24 hour shift and it was close to 100 degree's -or so it seemed.

Every time we walked out into the car she threw a mini fit as I was strapping her in. She wiggled her chubby little thighs, and it just complicated things more than it should have. We drove to church and listened to a sermon on stress, which totally convicted me. I was so stressed out about Joel working 24 hours straight and driving him in the morning just to forget my I.D.- but thankfully I was let into post (shh don't tell anyone). It seemed like everywhere we went she was miserable. She is typically a really laid back mellow baby, which makes days like today seem a lot worse than they really are. We drove on post three times, once to drop him off, second time for lunch, and third for dinner. Sophia fell a sleep 30 minutes later than her usual bed time, but hopefully she will have a better morning tomorrow.

Now, I am considering having a third cup of coffee, don't worry I only have one everyday. It's just one of those days...

Summer fun

Today was Sophia’s third time in a pool, she LOVED it. She kicked, splashed, and drank through lot’s of yucky pool water. She had a great work out and proceeded to nap for two hours. I had friends over and we chit chatted while Miss Evangeline dreamed away in never never land with milky water falls. I live for days like this!

then Momma, Daddy, friends Cierra and Erika went out for Wendy’s! Sophia was loopy because she was tired from the pool the second time, which lead to an earlier bed time! Score for Mom and Dad!!! Tomorrow, we will see what adventure’s we can get ourselves into since Dad has to work all day.