Sweet moments with Hannah

I've known for a while now that Hannah's love language is touch.  She's always in my lap or touching me in some way.  And she's really the best cuddler!  When she's sitting with me on the couch, she's either rubbing my arm or my back.  And she absolutely loves hugs and kisses!

I spend a good portion of the day in the kitchen, and she's usually right between my legs.  If not there, then she's never very far.  It can get frustrating at times, because she makes it hard to get things done.  But I try to remember that this is how she's expressing love to me. 

The other day I was making dinner, and she was in there with me.  She kept pushing on my legs, and I was playing with her by putting my knee up and pushing back.  She thought that was funny for a while, and then she wanted to stop.  She kept calling "Mama?" and I would say "What?" without really looking down at her.  That wasn't satisfying her, and she kept calling my name. I finally looked down, and said "Yes, baby?" and she looked right in my eyes and said "Me wuvs you." 

Talk about heart melting.  This was the best moment.  I just sat down right there and just held her and cried. 

The expression of love from your children is absolutely the best gift a mother can recieve.

7 months!

Wow! I cannot believe 7 months has gone by so quickly!  Rachel just turned 7 months old this past Saturday, and it's so hard to believe.

She's a little behind on her doctors' appointments, so we just had her 6 month check-up about 2 weeks ago.  She weighed 13.9 pounds, and was 26 inches long.  And her head was 15.75 inches.  Still pretty small on her weight and head size, like 5th percentile.  But she's in the 50th percentile for her length.  The doctor wasn't concerned though, because everything else looked really good.

Here's a glimpse at what Rachel has been up to:

• She's started "talking" a lot more.  She now says more consonant sounds.  Her favorite sayings are:  "ma ma ma ma"  and "ba ba ba ba."  She says "ma ma" a lot when she's crying.  It really sounds like she knows what she's saying, and trying to call me.
• She is a rolling machine.  I've never had a baby like this, but she will roll all over the floor.  And so quickly! She really has no interest in the process of crawling. I guess she gets around fine, so why should she try anything else!
• She's a great eater!  She's still nursing really well, and the majority of the time.  But we've been doing solids as well at night.  She eats most everything.  The only things she doesn't seem to like are peas, green beans, and bananas.  We've only been doing solids once a day so far, but I think I'm going to start doing it twice a day soon.
• I'd say she's gone from being a great sleeper to an average sleeper.  She usually goes to sleep around 9 now.  Sometimes she wakes up once around 2, and sometimes she'll sleep through until about 6:30.  It goes about half and half.  Sometimes when she wakes up in the night, I can rub her back and she'll go back to sleep for a while, but most of time she just wants to be nursed.  It's not too awful, so usually I'll just nurse her back to sleep. She takes pretty good naps though.  
• She's still not sitting up. I'm not too concerned, because it seems as though she's just not interested.  It would certainly make my life a lot easier though.  We "practice" every day, and she'll sit up for a few seconds but then she rears back like she would just rather be laying down. And rolling. :)
• She does like to sit up in her bumbo, and her new favorite thing is playing in her exersaucer.  She plays with all the toys, and jumps and squeals. 
• She's still very much a mama's girl.  She definitely prefers me, but she will easily go to Josh as well.  But most of the time, if anyone else even gets close, she sticks out her bottom lip and starts crying.  We've been trying to leave her in the nursery at church, and she only lasts for about 5 minutes!  She does love her older brother and sister though, and sometimes they can get her laughing hysterically. It's so cute!
• The latest, not so cute, thing she's doing is screaming when we take something away from her.  I've been noticing it for a while, but last night when she was taking her bath she got ahold of the cup.  I was letting her hold it, but then I needed it to rinse her off.  I took it away, and she started screaming.  Then if I would give it back, she would immediately calm down.  I tried this several times and she did it every time!  How do they learn this behavior so quickly!?!

                                             Playing outside                       

                             She fell asleep with her knees up, so cute!

 

Hanging out with Daddy

Smile!

Conclusion - Tweeking..

Recently, I've felt like everything in our lives was not working. But through everything that has been happening the last few weeks, I feel like God is using it all to change me.  For the better.  I like to call it "tweeking."  And although it's been hard and emotional, I know that it's for the best.

I know that God gave me the desire to read The Total Money Makeover.  I tried so many times before, and this time I just couldn't put it down.  And ever since my mindset changed about money, it feels like things began to work out.  I haven't been worried about finances for the last month, and this is so foreign.  I've literally worried about money for a year now.  And now there's freedom.  And hope.  I'm so excited about the future.  One of Dave Ramsey's sayings is "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else."  Meaning you might make sacrifices now, but eventually you'll be able to have more and not be in debt.  I had to have a total mind change.  I was always seeing what other people had, and wanting it.  We live in a small two bedroom house, and I was always thinking about new houses or bigger houses.  And yes, it's hard.  But I'd rather live here, than worry about how the mortgage is going to be paid.  And more importantly, I'm blessed to have a home!

The accident really made me realize how important life is.  I know it sounds corny.  But things can happen so quickly.  I've never been in an accident going at high speeds, and it could have easily been a lot worse.  I've also never been in an accident with my children.  I'm so very thankful that they were all ok.  I can't even imagine my life without them.  It has really made me treasure all the moments with them- good and bad.

Hannah's tooth adventure really made me realize that I don't have control.  Life just happens, and I can't be afraid of it.  It may not have happened the way I wanted it too, but she's completely fine!  And she was so brave.  I would have never guessed that about her.  :)

I've been reading another blog called the "Time-warp Wife."  It's all about how to be a godly wife in modern times. What really got me interested was the cleaning section.  I do love to clean, but my house felt like it was overtaking me.  Not being here for a week started it all.  I love how she breaks things down by the day, so that you aren't overwhelmed.  And she even has lists to do deep cleaning every 6 months or so.  I love it!  But she also talks about how as a wife, we should have duties.  And I completely agree.  Josh works so hard all day, that I want him to be comfortable when he comes home.  That's the job God has given me as a stay at home mom.  Well, that and taking care of my children.  And I'm not perfect, and on bad days things might get neglected.  But I want to try my hardest. With cleaning the house, with making dinner, and especially with my children. 

So, yeah,  God is definitely tweeking me.  As a wife, as a mother, as a person.  But I still have a long way to go.  I still have a lot to do to get to the place I want to be.  And I'm still struggling in other areas.  Like in friendships.  (I honestly don't feel like we have any close friends.)  And in my self-image of myself.  (I'm trying desperately to shed some weight that just won't budge. I'm partly to blame. I eat when stressed.)

So, in conclusion to these crazy weeks, I'm going to work on better planning of my time. I need to start practicing self-control.  I think I'm going to give facebook a rest for a while too.  It's just a distraction for me.  And not even a good one. It makes me feel lonely.  And fake.  I will blog sometimes though, because it helps me to get my thoughts out! 

But that's all for now.  Thank you to all who followed our crazy adventures! I'm going to go enjoy this wonderful weather with my children! :)

Part 6 - Things happen!

We found out that the van was totalled, but we were still waiting on the insurance company to give us a check.  During this time, Josh's mom was letting us borrow her van some of the time.  She had to use it herself some too, so we were passing it back and forth. 

I don't really need a vehicle most days anyways.  It's only there for conveinence really, and for emergencies.  Last week, I didn't have much going on, so she came and got it on Tuesday and was going to keep it.  I told her I didn't need it.  Never say never.

Tuesday afternoon, Elijah and Hannah were playing outside on the trampoline.  I was watching them and they were playing very well together.  I told them to be nice, while I went to check on Rachel inside.  She had woken up, so I was getting her out of her bed when I heard them crying.  I went to check, and Elijah said that they had bumped heads.  This happens so much around here, I just looked at his head and sent him on.  I checked Hannah next, and saw that she had a little blood on her lip.  I started checking her mouth, and found that she had cracked a tooth!!!  One of her front bottom ones. 

I called the dentist to see what I needed to do about it, and they made me an appointment for in the morning.  Josh's mom came and picked us up the next morning, and off we went.  She wouldn't let me touch it alot the night before, but she let me look at it that morning..and it was worse than I thought.  That poor little tooth was shattered, and on Eli's head!

We got to the dentist, and she did so good!  She sat still for the X-rays, and didn't cry at all.  She hadn't even complained about the tooth up to this point.  She's such a trooper!  The dentist came in, and said that it was indeed cracked and that we were going to have to go to a specialist because of her age.  They made us an appointment that afternoon in Tifton. 

We went home and ate lunch and got ready to leave again.  Abbie came over to watch Elijah, and Mom came over to take us to Tifton. 

The dentist was incredibly nice.  He told me that it was going to have to be pulled eventually, and it could either happen today or later. I decided that we should go ahead, because I didn't want it to cause her any pain. They got started right away.  They numbed her gums with a swab, then started her on the laughing gas.  She was so silly. She kept putting her hands on my face, and laughing hysterically.  Then he came back and numbed her gums some more with the needle.  She did soo good.  She was impressing me greatly!

They let that sit for a while, and then he came in to pull it. They had to put a thing in her mouth to hold it open, and she didn't like that at all.  She did start getting antsy then.  We had to hold her down a little. But he pulled it really quickly!  He said it was good that we went ahead and pulled it, because it had cracked very close to the root and would have caused her some pain.   But she cried a little, and as soon as they let her get up and I could hold her, she immediately calmed down.  And not once has she complained about it!

This was one of the hardest moments I've experienced as a mom though.  I was an emotional wreck that day.  The fear of the unknown and if it would cause her to be emotionally damaged from it all.  I HATE dentists, so seeing my child go through that was very rough.  I just felt guilty, and sad.  Guilty that I had let this happen. Even though, I know things will always happen.  You can't have that kind of fear!  I was also sad, because she was missing a tooth.  I know, it sounds so vain.  But it's much deeper than that.  They come out of the womb so perfect.  Everything is perfect. No scars, no bruises.  And then life happens. They get hurt, they bump their head, sometimes they even have to get stitches.  But when those things happen for the first time, it's hard.  Their little perfect bodies have to go through pain, and the scars show what they went through.  I feel silly even admitting this.  But I'll leave it at - it was a hard day!

Hannah is completely fine though.  I honestly don't even think she knows she's missing a tooth. It hasn't caused her any problems at all!!  And because the dentist said she couldn't use a sippy cup, we've been mastering the skill of using real cups this week! :) 

Still a cutie, even without the tooth!

Part 5 - The surprise!

After the state patrolman finally got there and asked me what happened, and surveyed the scene, they finally let us go.  The babies and I rode home with Josh's parents.  On the way, I realized that they hadn't been home yet!  For some reason I thought they went home, and then came to the accident.  So they still had no clue what we had been up to!

We arrived, and Josh's dad went in first.  I just saw his back as he was going in, and he really didn't look overjoyed.  Uh oh.  Josh and I and his mom were getting the kids out of the van, and we came in a little before his mom.  She was speechless!  She came in so hesitantly. (It was probably the amount of people that had gathered and were the first thing you saw when you came in!)  But she just stood there for a long time, with her mouth open!  She just kept walking around with her mouth open a little looking at everything!  I'm so glad that she liked it.  (It was mostly for her anyways!)  Dad eventually came around and said that he liked it too though. I'm sure it was a lot to handle seeing it for the first time!

Here are some after pictures of the house:

So, we stayed the rest of the evening and just hung out with his family.  Denise and Jacob, and Rebekah were still in town so we just sat around and talked mostly.  We went home a little later, and I was exhausted.  The full week of work, plus the emotions of the wreck and the surprise.  I just fell in bed that night!

The next week was full of dealing with the van situation.  Thankfully, we had full coverage on it!  I spent most of the week talking to several people from State Farm.  And I had to go up to the body shop alot to sign alot of papers.  All week, we didn't know what was going to happen with it.  They finally got the estimate to fix it finalized on Friday.  Monday, we heard from State Farm.  They were totalling it.

I can't believe the emotions I had towards that car.  But I was seriously so sad to lose it.  The previous week, it came into my thoughts several times that we just needed to sell it.  I know that was God asking me to give it up, but I kept resisting.  And looking back, it feels like it just took physical force to just take it away from me!  But it really worked out great.  We got WAY more than we paid for it!  And we were able to pay off the rest of the loan, and have enough left over to buy another car outright! Praise God! No more car payments!  Now we are just in the process of finding another car. 

TO BE CONTINUED...