Happy Birthday Pepa!

The Beloved Park

Brian was on call twice this past week, which basically means he was working at the hospital for about 30 hours straight. Thankfully both times he was able to get about six hours of sleep during the night. This was great news for us, because a typical day after call is a day of sleep. Since Brian was able to catch some zzz's at the hospital, we were able to hang out the following day as a family. We spent both days taking Elisabeth to the park, where she, of course, had a wonderful time. Yesterday, on our way to a nearby park, we forgot something at home and turned around to go get it. Upon seeing the house, she starting chanting, "Park, park, park!". I think I detected a little worry in her voice! We assured her that we were indeed going to the park, and after retreiving the forgotten item, we were swiftly on the road again. It was a wonderful blessing to be able to venture out as a family for a change! Here are a few pictures of our outings...

Milestones

Elisabeth has been quite busy lately changing before our very eyes. We turned around to find that she is suddenly a little girl, and not a baby, who pulls at our heartstrings every day. She has become the lover of babies rather than the baby herself. She amazes us everyday with her words, her memory, her ability and willingness to learn, and her love and energy. Both are boundless.

In her baby doll's bed...reminiscing of her days as a baby...

Here are a couple of her most recent milestones:

THE SPOON:

It is a simple item necessary in today's society, yet it posed this threat to me that I had not anticipated before our endeavor to master the spoon. It threatened my sense of order and cleanliness. It threatened my germ-free hands (I have a bit of an obsession with clean hands, therefore they look like they belong to someone decades older). Elisabeth should have been using a spoon on her own at 18 months, but it was not until a couple of weeks ago that I decided to jump in head first. She has been dabbling with the spoon here and there, but no serious commitment. She was doing quite well with her dry foods, but as I sat down to once again spoon feed my perfectly capable daughter her oatmeal several mornings ago, I realized that I was hindering her. So I asked her if she wanted to do it, of which she replied, "Oh-kaaaay", and with spoon in hand, off she went. And off she went quite well! My daughter can use a spoon! Now, I still haven't relinquished total control...I'm just not ready to tackle the runny stuff yet...yogurt, etc. I just don't want to clean up that mess. But she is doing a fantastic job of feeding herself oatmeal, applesauce, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, and the like.

Who knew such a simple thing could bring such great joy! Another freedom for Elisabeth, another freedom for mommy.

THE POTTY:


No, she is not potty trained...but she has told me several times that she has just gone or is about to go! So we went to the store a couple of days ago to buy a little seat that goes over our seat and a book to give her a visual of her goal. I'm not formally potty training her, but just getting her used to sitting on it. As she shows more readiness we will jump in! I'm excited about it right now...I'll let you know how I'm feeling when we really get started!

Another challenge for Elisabeth, another challenge for mommy.


She is quickly approaching her second birthday...less than two months away...I know it's cliche, but it feels like we were just coming home from the hospital with her. What a joyous and blurring ride it has been!

Yes, It Happened Again!

All I'm going to say is that it wasn't my fault this time. Brian handed them to me as I was getting the washing machine going. I think it's fair to say that if he's handing them to me as I'm standing at the washing machine, I could assume the pockets would be empty. Wrong again!

See original post for more details...

A Sappy Moment...

I am so honored and thankful to have been blessed with this family. My husband works so hard every day as he pursues his calling of being a doctor. The road to becoming a physician is long and arduous, yet Brian pushes through knowing that this is where he is supposed to be. And I know that this is where he is supposed to be. That makes this journey worth it all. Though our time together each day is short, he makes every moment count. He gives his all to the Lord, to us, to medicine, to his patients, to his friends and family. And yet he wishes he could do more. The love in his heart never ceases to amaze me. I am blessed to be married to this man.

Then there is our precious Elisabeth, or Lizzy the Pooh, as only her daddy calls her. She is vivacious and joyful (she always has a smile on her face and goes after life as fast as she can), smart (for starters, she knows all of the letters of the alphabet, except that she says "w" for "v"), funny (she is currently putting stickers on her nose and in her hair), talkative (although much of it is in her own language), loving (she loves to give out hugs and kisses...she's even pinned a little boy in the nursery against the wall to give him a kiss - twice!...her daddy had to have a talk with her about that!), friendly (she loves to say "hi" to everyone in the grocery store), and marches to beat of her own drum (often with only one sock on). She is a joy and a blessing to all of our family. We are so grateful that we have been allowed to be the ones to help guide her through life. We are even more grateful that the Lord is guiding us on this journey as a family. Where would we be without Him...

Laundry Mishaps

So, why can't I seem to get this right! Brian is incredibly particular about the length of his pants/jeans and I am always so careful not to shrink his things...ever since I shrunk almost everything he owned when we were first married! But in my defense we didn't have a washer and dryer and had to go to the laundrymat to do all of our laundry. The only setting they had for the dryer was burn-your-hand-if-you-touch-your-clothes-without-opening-the-door-to-let-them-cool-off-for-five-minutes! CRAZY! Why does a dryer need to get that hot! And you can forget about the skin on your finger or arm that happens to touch the buttons! You will most definitely have a burn mark! So I learned my lesson there and have not shrunk anything since...

So, Brian's scrubs were in desperate need of a wash. I was all excited to wash them for him so he would be excited that they would be clean for tomorrow...he is easy to please...and sick of wearing a tie. So I washed them on the delicate cycle with the jacket he wears with them, before I planned to air dry them (no chance of shrinking there). I hear the washing machine stop and go to get the clothes to lay them out and I find what looks like hundreds, no thousands of tiny feathers ALL OVER his clothes! AAHH!! I forgot to check his pockets!!! I always have empty pockets (unless I am collecting the trail of Cheerios Elisabeth unknowing leaves as she snacks through the grocery store), Brian always has full pockets - Kleenex, gum, cough drops, random pieces of paper. I always assume pockets are empty, because mine always are. Bad move on my part. I should have known.

Anyway, I am trying to figure out what to do about this and first decide to shake out each piece of clothing outside. Not the best move. Not only do I not want these thousands of "feathers" on Brian's clothes, but I also don't want them all over my backyard. So I decide to shake them out in the kitchen and vacuum the mess up with my new dustbuster (greatest thing a mom could ever have!). In the midst of vacuuming up the snow of feathers (actually, it's Kleenex), Elisabeth excitedly comes running into the kitchen to "Hep Mommy?!". So I let her help me vacuum up my mess, plus a little extra...if she wants to help clean, who am I to stop her! Let's hope it will always be this easy to get help cleaning! I even used the dustbuster in the washing machine, but having just gotten out the second load of laundry to put in the dryer I see that my efforts there have failed. So my little oversight is going to cost me to have to clean up this same mess, though a little smaller each time, until the Kleenex have been fully dissolved. Oh, well, at least it will give Elisabeth and I something to do. And at least I didn't shrink anything!

The Sweetest Times

It is such a blessing, as a mother, to see my daughter learning and loving and growing into such a sweet child. I hope that I cherish each moment and don't let them pass by before I am able to grab hold of the memory. It's easy to get frustrated with Elisabeth as she is quickly approaching two and beginning to give me glimpses of why this age has such a frightening label. While it is so important for us to train Elisabeth in the ways of the Lord and mold her character, I hope that I can do so in a way that will show her love and grace. I hope that I can do so in a way that won't overshadow or hinder the most precious moments where her personality comes alive. From showing her motherly instinct to already proving that she sets her own rules...of course, she had to put stickers on mommy's face too... but really, who wants to see that picture! ;) ...she is a joyful, vibrant, energetic, loving child who melts our hearts every day.

She is a gift from God and a reminder to me of the way the Lord deals with me every day. I am but a child. Stubborn, selfish, rebellious. I am so grateful that as He works to shape and mold me everyday, that there are moments that He overlooks those things, as He has already so graciously forgiven me of my MANY faults. I found myself getting on to Elisabeth earlier today and as I was scolding her, as she was crying, all she wanted to do was cling to me and have me hold her safely in my arms. My heart swelled, and I thought again of our Savior and how I must cling to Him in the midst of my downfalls. In the same way that I loved and kissed Elisabeth to let her know that everything was okay and I still loved her, He will restore me...He longs to restore me, the same way that I wanted so much for Elisabeth to cling to me. I am grateful, that while I don't often feel this way, I know that He loves me and sees me as His sweet, precious child. What an amazing God we have! And what an example of parenting Brian and I have to guide us on this blessed journey with Elisabeth!

What Happens When No One's Looking

So Brian and I got a little preoccupied this evening and left Elisabeth to her own volition. I walked into the kitchen to find Elisabeth scavenging through the cabinet. Yes, it was dinnertime, and I don't blame her for wanting something to eat. But she knows not to get into the pantry. So when she saw me she frantically started to put stuff back before she decided to grab hold of the bag of Cheerios by the closed end and shake it as hard as she could. Cheerios everywhere! She then proceeded to eat all of the food off the floor! I, of course, scolded her as I took pictures!

Cherished Possessions

Elisabeth has been missing her daddy a lot lately, as have I. He is on his internal medicine rotation and leaves before we wake up and often comes home after Elisabeth has already gone to bed. The last few nights I've been keeping her up a little later so that she can see him, if only for a short while.

Being a first time parent has proved to be very challenging for us! One of our obstacles is knowing what to allow Elisabeth to play with and what she shouldn't touch. We want to teach her to be obedient to us, but not be legalistic about it. We struggle with her touching two things repeatedly even though she knows she is not allowed to. One being the remote...she's pretty good about it, but if she is in a rebellious streak (a little more often lately than we like), then she will head straight for it! The second object of desire is her daddy's Bible. Brian reads to her every night and puts her to bed shortly after. At first I didn't want her to play with his Bible because I didn't want her to tear the fine pages. Then it became an obedience thing.

Elisabeth and I woke up on Wednesday morning after Brian had already been gone for a couple of hours and upon walking into the living room I told her not to touch daddy's Bible or she would have to sit out (we leave it out because she needs to know her boundaries...we can't put everything away...that wouldn't teach her much). She understood what I was telling her and stayed away from it for a few hours. However I got caught up doing something around lunch time, and lo and behold, the deafening silence caught my attention...that always spells trouble for Elisabeth. I saw her sitting in the recliner where Brian reads to her and rocks her to sleep and my heart broke. First because I had to follow through with what I had told her...touch the Bible and it will be time to sit out. Second, because I knew she missed her daddy and that was how she was trying to connect with him.

I followed through with my warning and as I was putting her in her spot to sit out (we don't call it time out...those of you who know Brian well know what a sports fanatic, dare I say freak, he is! He doesn't want our children to someday confuse a time out in sports with the negative consequence of misbehaving! Fine, we will call it sitting out...I don't mind!) So, I'm sitting her out and my heart is so heavy because this tiny little girl just wants her daddy. She is all the while crying and saying, "Dada Biba, Dada Biba!" I sat her down and prayed for wisdom and decided that if that is how she can spend time with her dad, then she can have the Bible (I texted Brian and he, melted heart and all, agreed). And have the Bible she has! Since I gave it to her on Wednesday, it has been her constant companion. And I must say that she has taken pretty good care of it. We've only taped a few pages! And I might add that her behavior is better as well. Maybe our reins have been a little too tight...

It is precious to see her with this book. She loves it and cherishes it, because it is her daddy's book. My prayer is that in time she will grow to love this book because it is her Father's book.

Overcoming the Distance

Welcome to our blog!

The Lord has placed us far from family and friends, and as He may do so again next year, I thought it was time to start a blog. It will be a way for us to share our life with you and stay connected in a way that the distance hinders us from doing. I will do my best to keep it updated regularly, but sometimes my best is just not enough. And sometimes nothing exciting happens around here! So please forgive me if there are days between posts. While Elisabeth is a great source of entertainment, she also keeps my very busy and thus I am often worn out! Listen to me already making excuses! The Lord still has a lot of work to do on me yet!

We hope you enjoy our simple and often chaotic life! We happen to love it! We also love each one of you more than we can ever express in words!