Still talking teethers...

I posted about a month ago how Lucy was working on getting a tooth to come out while Gabriel was trying to get some teeth to come in.

 Well, it took exactly five weeks of wiggling, but Lucy finally lost her first tooth this past Sunday!  It ended up being a pretty traumatic experience for her--she was so concerned with it hurting and bleeding and making her look funny (it breaks my heart that my SIX year old would worry about "looking funny" from her tooth being "different...), and it was definitely a roller coaster of emotions from excitement of having a loose tooth to terror at losing her first tooth to triumphal bliss at having a hole in her mouth:) 

NOTE: It happened to be 80's night at AWANAs on Sunday evening, if you're at all curious why she's dressed in neon rainbow brite attire;-)

  Daddy may or may not have had to help that pesky tooth along

 Either way, it's out now, and Lucy can't stop grinning without showing it off. 

Gabriel has had some ups and downs with his teething experience as well.  One of his top eye teeth finally poked through, but the other one is still being pretty stubborn.  It seems his fingers and sissy are taking the brunt of it as he is constantly gnawing on his sweet little hands or trying to bite at his sissy.

 She's usually pretty patient with him about it for the most part, and I'm trying to redirect his biting towards other things.  And, despite the fact that I know he must be hurting, he still manages to keep that sweet smile on his face. 

So while Gabriel and Lucy work on their teethers, this momma has been gritting hers all week at the growing intensity of contractions.  I've still got a few months to go, so I know they'll only increase from here on out.  Baby mustard seed is quite the mover and shaker, so she's definitely staying busy in there--maybe cheering sissy and brother on with their teething??;-) 

Baby Elephant...

Monday was President's Day, and Lucy had the day off from school. DH was able to switch his day off, so we had a fun family day at the zoo. The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS on Monday! We seriously could not have asked for better zoo weather! (Being close to 8 months pregnant and walking all around the zoo wasn't exactly the most amazing feeling though, so I was glad to at least have the weather on my side;-) 

We got to see the monkeys first, and they were being so playful!  Gabriel's face lit up at the sight of them, and Lucy and I enjoyed pointing out the cute little baby monkey. My brother, who we refer to as "Unkey Monkey" used to bring Lucy a new stuffed monkey every time he saw her, so monkeys have always been a thing for Lucy. My favorites were the arangatangs though.  The male kept trying to kiss the female, and it crakced me up!  (DH said it was because she had food in her mouth, but I think he just wanted kisses;-)  I joked that if DH and I were arangatangs, those were the ones we would be, since I'm always asking him to "give me kisses":) 

We also got to see the new baby elephant that the zoo recently welcomed, and I was especailly excited for that one.  If you've been around me much with Gabriel, you may have heard me refer to him as my "baby elephant."  This is because he likes to grab tightly onto my pointer finger and walk behind me, and it always makes me think of a baby elephant walking behind his momma.  So I went online and looked at why a baby elephant does this, and I learned a few facts (which I'm sure are completely accurate because they were on google;-)  One of the things I read that stuck out to me was this: 

"Another beautiful image of free African elephants is the baby's first use of his own trunk, to reach up and hold the tail of his mother so he can follow in her footsteps..."  

 

Every time Gabriel asks to take hold of my hand, I feel this sese of pride and responsibility as his mother.  I am so proud that he wants me to guide his steps, and I feel such a strong responsibility to lead him in a way that is worthy of the calling his birthmother placed on me to be his mother, and most importantly that is worthy of the calling The Lord has placed on my life to be his mother.  What an incredible blessing and honor to have been chosen to guide his precious little footsteps!  Even though now that mostly consists of simple acts, I know that he is also ever looking to me to see where my steps lead, and I so pray that my steps are leading him towards a desire to follow The Lord... 

As a little girl who loved to play with baby dolls, I always dreamed of having children, but I never could have possibly dreamed how much my children would fill my heart in a way only they are capable of doing.  The special conversations I have with my daughter just touch my heart, and the way Gabriel smiles at me and reaches for me just melts my heart.  As much as they fill a place in my heart only reserved for them, they make me feel like I, too, fill a void in their hearts that only I am capable of filling.  What joy they bring me-my sweet little bug-a-boo and my precious baby elephant:)

Homemade Valentines...

I'm going to go ahead and just admit it (since it is probably obvious to anyone who knows me): I'm a bit of a control freak. It's not that I got nuts if things don't go according to plan, but I still want to have a plan in place.  For example: I strategically choose my line at the grocery store based on a quick scan of all of the lines, how quickly they seem to be moving, how many and what type of each items are in each person's basket, etc...I typically end up in the line that will have some random weird issue tho, so my "plan" of moving through the line quickly goes out the window. It doesn't necessarily bother me that it didn't go as planned though.  The point is that I can't just walk up to a line without analyzing it and making some sort of plan.  This also means I'm obsessed with writing lists, but I'm okay if not everything gets done on said list. The issue though is that at some point in the early process of things, there's a plan of attack-MY plan-, which seems pretty logical to me...except it's not something that should be carried out into every aspect of life...  You would think the musician side-the artsy side, if you will-would be a little more free spirited, but quite possibly THE most difficult area for me to let go of my controlling tendencies is when it has to do with anything artsy...especially children's art projects!  Lucy recently attended a birthday party, and I found myself trying to talk her into which piece of pottery "she" wanted to paint, and which colors "she" wanted to "choose" to paint it. I literally should have just walked away and let her do her own thing, but we know that wasn't going to happen, so instead, I just tried my best to keep my mouth SHUT, and her project, of course, turned out beautifully and showed her amazing creativity. (By the way, she chose a very sizable hello kitty face.)

So, now valentines day is approaching, and my planning, controlling self had pinned all sorts of fun ideas for valentines for "Lucy" to make...except Lucy didn't actually want to make those.  (She did fall in love with the princess valentines box, so we worked on that while watching the olympics pairs skating on Tuesday evening:)

 But as for all of the cute valentines candy card ideas I've been pinning the past several months, she had her own ideas, no pinterest needed.  She wanted to cut out her own hearts...all 18 of them.  So we sat down earlier this week and I supervised her safety-scissor usage...and I literally couldn't handle it!  I found myself saying "Don't you just want mommy to cut them out for you?" And then I quickly found myself losing patience over the project. (The planner in me analyzes the quickest way to complete a project so more things can get done.)  So we just had to walk away from it...and I realized how ridiculous I was being. Why on earth would I want to hinder my child's own creativity? But at the same time, Lucy wanted to cut out hearts for her classmates, and we were getting these mutated ovals instead that she wasn't happy with  (Have you ever tried to cut out hearts with safety-scissors?  Probably not, because you know better!)  So tonight, we sat down after mommy had a nice long breath, and I realized my 6 year old is quite capable of using a "normal" pair of scissors.  I also realized that while I didn't need to take over this project, I could still help her attain what she had envisioned. So, I traced 18 hearts that she cut out.  And instead of mommy trying to rush through the project, I sat there and let her go at her own pace.  And instead of mommy trying to take over the project, I sat there until she asked for my help.  (I did go ahead and tape all of the candy in place, but mostly because we were very limited on tape today since a certain 6 year old is obsessed with taping things...anyone else have to constantly switch which drawer they keep their scotch tape in to try and hide it??;-) And as I looked at the finished project, I smiled.  It was was so much fun to help my daughter accomplish HER plan, instead of trying to enforce one of my own. And while they aren't the next biggest pinterest idea to sweep the Valentine pin boards, they certainly are what this Mommy considers a work of art--because they are Lucy's art.

Does this mean I'm going to stop analyzing the checkout lanes at the grocery store? Um...doubtful! But it does mean I realize I don't need to be in charge and in control all of the time.

Okay...maybe even most of the time!;-)

And speaking of homemade Valentines, Lucy's classmates aren't the only ones who received a "Lucy one of a kind" this week.  In fact, both of my kiddos made me special Valentines this week.  Seriously, I had tears in my eyes when I saw my sweet boy's handprint:

 and my precious girl's handwritten note to me.

There really just isn't anything quite like a homemade valentine--it not only came straight from their hands, but also straight from their hearts:)