Male Bonding

What the appeal is with monster trucks, I have no idea. But I'm a girl. Daddy has always loved it and it seems the tradition is being passed down to the next generation...

Thanksgiving Play Date!

This past week we've had some gorgeous Thanksgiving weather. So another mommy friend and I decided to get our boys outside to run off some energy before the holiday got started.

Things started off in the sandbox...







Then moved to the slides...








Then there was a little hangin' around the monkey bars...







And swingin' on the swings...







Watchin' the biggun's jumping to the next section of the castle...



And deciding to jump around and dance instead...



Peace out!

What I'm Thankful for Today: Ms. Kamlah

Some of you have heard me talk about one of the baby teachers at the boys' school, Ms. Kamlah. I so wish you could meet this amazing woman in person. I can't sing her praises enough!

Back when Monkey first started going to school, as a new mom, I had a hard time with going back to work. I had to have N do the drops in the mornings, as it was just too emotional for me. I get to do the pickups after work. After one particularly tough day at the office, I arrived at Monkey's school in tears. Tears of frustration, but so happy to see my little boy. I will never forget Ms. Kamlah cheering me that evening. When I told her I was having such a hard time with working, she said something very profound that made me considering working motherhood in a new light.

(Ms. Kamlah is from Trinidad, so imagine her saying this in a thick West Indies accent.)

"Your son is a special boy, Momma. He is so little, but he has a God-given job to bless those people around him. He's too little to do anything else. If you were with him at home, he would not be able to have such a wide audience of people to do that with. By working, you are allowing God to use your child for His glory."

It was one of those moments that I felt like God was speaking to me directly.

Even though it was still hard, I started going to work with a renewed sense of purpose. If not for myself, then for my child.

Two weeks ago, Ms. Kamlah announced her retirement. She has worked at this school for 13 years, all in the infant room. She has told me many times that when she lies down every night, she imagines all the name-tagged cribs in the room and prays for each child individually. The idea that my two boys have had somebody, besides Mommy and Daddy, pray over them DAILY, is such a huge blessing to our family.

Today is Ms. Kamlah's last day at our boys' school. While we are so grateful for the time she's been called to care and love on our boys, we are very sad our time with her is over. But after all her years for caring for so many children, it's time for her to relax and enjoy herself.

Ms. Kamlah will never know exactly how much of a blessing she has been to our family. But we pray that God watch, keep her, and bless her. We will miss her very much!

A VERY Fast Four Months!

Last Friday, our little Bubby turned 4 months old. I'm stunned on a daily basis how quickly time has flown since his arrival. But life is sure sweeter with this little boy's presence!

Today we went for our checkup and got the following stats:

17.1 lbs - 90th %
25" tall - 60th %
17" head - 75th %

You're a big boy! You've been in 6 month clothes for awhile and recently we've started pulling out the 9 month clothes. While you're a big boy, you are still our little baby cakes!

Poor little monkey got two shots in his legs...




But after nursing and then taking a little nap, he was just happy as he always is...




I think his poor red gums hurt worse than his legs. This is about all we see nowadays...his little fists in his mouth. Poor kiddo's fingers are constantly pruned from being chewed on...




Little boy, you are such a joy to us! We could not have been more shocked when we got those two pink lines and we had NO idea how we were about to be blessed. God was so good to us with allowing us to have another sweet boy. We are so thrilled to have such a wonderful unexpected gift! Here are some things to note about you this month:

You are such a mellow baby! There isn't much that phases you. You rarely cry. It sounds strange, but you really don't cry much. You have a throaty little fuss, but that's about it. When you cry, there is usually something really wrong. (Like today when you got your shots.) Or Momma has taken too long to attend to your needs. (Not often.) We think you're going to have your Daddy's chill personality, which is just fine with us.




You are growing so strong! You will sit in your Johnny Jumper and jump away until you literally fall asleep in it. We love seeing you grow like this, as we know someday you'll need the strength to keep up with Big Brother!




You LOVE your Big Brother! Although you're still a little small to attract his attention, you just constantly stare and watch every little move he makes. We can tell that you are already looking up to him. Or at the very least, entertained by his loud antics.




You are more of a Momma's Boy than Big Brother. While I love this, I know it's only because you're nursing and your BB didn't. We're making it a point for you to spend some one on one time with your Daddy. One of these days you'll understand what an awesome guy he is.




Bubby, we so look forward to getting to know you more. You will never know how blessed you make us feel. We honestly cannot remember what life was like before your arrival, but it doesn't matter. We love you so much and I hope that our actions prove that to you!

XOXOXOXO,
Momma and Daddy

Fall Has Fallen

Saturdays are my favorite day of the week. The smell of N's famous French toast and hot coffee. The sounds of lawns being mowed in the neighborhood and clothes being fluffed in the dryer. And it's beautiful outside today! Blue skies, light breeze, cool temperature. Ahhh...fall in Texas is really my favorite time of year!

Monkey LOVES to be outside, so this morning we hung out together while I cleaned a little bit of the garage out. I realized about an hour into it, that it'd be much more fun to play in the fall leaves. So I got our rake and initiated Monkey in this fabulous autumn tradition. We didn't have enough leaves in our yard, so I "borrowed" some from our neighbor.

Hoping our neighbor won't be too upset at me raking up their front yard? Some of you know our neighbor. He's a bit...um..."particular"? So yes, there is a chance it's not going to make him happy. Me? If you wanna rake our yard, rake away! I'll even pay you.









I had him get his step stool out so he could get a little more air...










The Nestea plunge. Some of you are probably too young to remember that.

This Little Light of Mine...

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

Many years ago, during the midst of an ugly divorce, God placed in my path an amazing new friend. Sweet Hopkins. Sweet was the children's minister at the church I was attending at the time. If there is one word I would use to describe her, it would be dynamic. She was a tiny thing. I had about two inches on her, if that gives you any idea. But she had the spirit and tenacity of a giant. When I hear the phrase, "Great things come in small packages," I think of Sweet.

The first time I met Sweet, she wore an obnoxiously bright red and pink flowered scarf around her head. What I didn't know at that time was that she had just finished her final round of chemo. Which came in a full package deal that included radiation, a full mastectomy, and a stem cell transplant. Her skin was grey with dark circles under her eyebrowless eyes. She walked determinedly, but slow. Her energy obviously low. In spite of her delicate and sickly frame, one could not miss the attitude and spunk with which she lived her life. Cancer might slow her down, but it wasn't going to KNOCK her down.

The second time I met Sweet, was at a camp counselors meeting about a year later. She had emailed and asked me to join her team of volunteers to take upwards of 100 elementary students to Camp Lebanon for a week long Children's Summer camp. She said she'd make it easy on me and let me go with the "little girls", the 3rd graders, most of which had never been away from their parents for a whole week themselves. I was petrified! My divorce had just finalized a few week's earlier. I had been struggling with how not only would I never have children in my barren state, but now I wasn't even married anymore. And now I was being asked to join a bunch of little girls for summer camp? While a part of me screamed in emotional pain at the thought being around kids for that long, a part of me felt a very deep need to please Sweet. Why I don't know, but I ignored my internal whining and said yes.

What transpired in that week of Children's Camp was a change in my heart. The girls were darling. They did much to heal my broken spirit with their sweetness and silliness. Not only did God heal my heart through those precious little girls, but through my new friend Sweet. Sweet was not one of those coddling, mothering types of women. She was tough. She would give hugs freely and lovingly and not one child or counselor ever felt anything but pure love from this woman. But we all also knew not to pull anything on her. She was sharp and wouldn't put up with any shenanigans from student or counselor. Her advice to all of us while we were there: Don't do anything stupid! We were all very intent on following her advice if it killed us! Nobody wanted to disappoint Sweet. I also finally had the gift to hear her amazing story of beating breast cancer, firsthand. At that time she was in full remission. I just remember thinking that if Sweet could battle for her life with the fortitude she demonstrated, then I could fight what few battles I had in my life. The question was, could I do it with the grace that Sweet did?

Several years go by and cancer again attacked Sweet's body. This time a little more extensively and with a lot more force. But in typical Sweet fashion, it was fought against and she won. Again.

A few more years go by, her kids are grown and in college. Her life still revolves around the children's ministry at church. The cancer returns. Almost with an angry vengeance. It was in her liver and her bones. With time, it's obvious that the aggression of the cancer was not going to be beat. The family decides to let hospice take care of Sweet in her last days.

A year ago today, Sweet Hopkins finally went home. While the rest of us mourned our loss on earth, the Heavens danced with her arrival. With that mental picture, I cannot help but smile. I remember watching her sing and dance at the camp talent shows with all of the kids...

"This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

Looking back, I think that was what was so attractive about Sweet. As corny as it sounds, she couldn't help but let her light shine. It was bigger than her. It wasn't meant to be contained by her tiny little body. Honestly, it's not meant to be contained in any of our bodies, no matter how big or strong. So again, I'm forced to ask myself, can I do this like Sweet?

Fall Festival 2009

A little behind on some pictures, so this will be backdated once everyone's seen it...

Momma was sick this year, so we missed our church's Fall Festival. But we made it to Gramma and De-Dah's Trunk or Treat. For those that don't know, a Trunk or Treat is where church members volunteer to decorate their car trunk in a theme, dress up as coordinating characters and pass out loads of sugar to over-stimulated, sweaty kids that haven't had dinner.

Monkey dressed up as a frog, in a costume that Mimi brought from Japan. Although, I'm not entirely convinced that this was a costume. Have you seen the way Japanese kids dress? I think this would be a typical outfit for chilly weather. Monkey just wasn't going for the frog hat though.



Bypassing the candy for the balls in the display. Taking him away from this Trunk was not a pretty scene.



A little creeped out by the talking mechanical cat.



We discovered that Bubba makes a really terrible Angry Banana. He's entirely too mellow.





Our favorite Auntie E and her little lion.



Our friends and neighbors, The M family. DD #1 dressed as a groomless bride (the best kind according to her father), DD#2 dressed as Jackie O (precious!), Mom dressed as a hunter. Dad...well...he looks like dinner.



Enjoying the concert and his hard earned goods...



Doing the hoky poky. Okay, maybe not.



We had an awesome dinner at Burger Island and then home for baths and cuddle time. Fun, fun night!

Our First Family Camping Trip

So a few Fridays ago, N and I decided to take a VERY spontaneous camping trip with the boys. Spontaneous as in we decided to go around 5:15pm and had the truck packed by 6:15pm. Dinner on the road, picked up some groceries on the way, and we were headed into a weekend adventure with our two monkeys. The boys fell asleep on the way, which was fine. We let them sleep in the heated truck while we set up camp. By the time we got the basic gear set up for the night and pulled the boys into the tent, it was close to midnight.

The funny thing about the night: I had forgotten that cats in heat sound very similar to crying babies. And crying babies sound like cats in heat. I learned quickly that night that when Bubba cried to eat, I had to get him taken care of pronto! Several times that night we had feral cats just outside of our tent howling in unison with our little baby! LOL! It was a little creepy, but it was funny.


First thing in the morning, Monkey is chillin' (literally) while Daddy builds a fire...



Mr. Bubba, as usual, just happy to be here...



We discovered the first morning that some point after we went to sleep, we had some visitors that tried to steal our food. Evidenced by the paw prints that we found all over our site...



When they realized our food was packed up pretty tightly, they decided to nibble on some other things...yum.



We spent the weekend taking walks...



Feeding the local geese...



Had geology lessons with the rocks found on the walks...



Tackled Daddy for a little wrestling...



"Cooked" up some snacks by the fire...



We were having so much fun, that naptime took a little extra effort to get implemented...



But when it finally happened, it happened hard...



The second day we had some more fun. We chilled out at the campfire...





Sang songs. Mostly "ABC's" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider"...



Played games. Mostly "peach-a-boo"...





Helped Daddy gather some fire wood...



Played at the campsite playground and learned to "pump and swing"...



Snuggled with babies to keep warm...



"Oh no! Table fall down!" (The water levels were up because of all the rain.)



Skipped rocks in the lake...



Camping has always been the way N and I reconnect and find a new sense of peace in ourselves and each other. While we didn't really have any "down" time to experience the peace, all in all, it was a really wonderful trip! Looking back, I think the only reason I agreed to such a spontaneous event with two little ones, was because I'd had a glass of wine when N asked me. Ha! But watching Monkey run off a ton of steam outdoors and experience one of our favorite things to do, made it all worthwhile. We're already looking forward to doing it again in the spring!