God bless...

Grace has a new interest, prayer. She is asking to pray at all times during the day, is very specific in her word choice and is so sincere. I am so proud of her! Though some of the things she is choosing to pray for are down right hilarious. I can not help but giggle as we sit on her bed and listen to this child "talk to Jesus".

Here are just a few of the things she has prayed for or said during prayer lately starting with tonights prayer,

"God bless me, and the people who bring the pizza.."

"....and thank you for my candy for when I poop"

" mommy I want to pray for your school ok?... Now you pray for mine"

"God bless that and that and that and that and that"

"God bless my name, my music, and my mirror"

"Thank you God for Mickey Mouse and those Bubble Guppies.."

"We gotta talk loud so Jesus can hear us.."

"Hush momma and bow your head.."

"I wanna pray for my G. R. A. C. E."

" Will you pray for me?"

Is that not the sweetest thing you've heard today? OH and she is OFFICIALLY 2 1/2 this week!

What's so wrong with one?

I have been doing a lot of research lately about raising gifted children, positive parenting, natural parenting, and most importantly parenting with prayer. Mike and I have spent a lot of time talking about our family... what we want it to look like, where we want to live, when's a good time to buy another house, and also Grace as an only child. So recently, with the influx of comments like "When are you guys having another?, Grace would be a good big sister, You need about 2 or three more of those (kids), are you pregnant?" also gritting my teeth as I listen to the critical comments when I answer with "Oh no... just one for us", I started doing a little research on only children families. There is so much information out there about this.. most just as critical as the random person, but some very informative :). I am looking for POSITIVE stories of people who could only have one child...MEDICALLY.

When people ask me about "When am I thinking about another" I want to wear a BIG SIGN around my neck that says ... "I HAD A MISERABLE PREGNANCY...DO NOT ASK ME IF IM HAVING ANOTHER" Now, anatomically..I can get pregnant whenever I want to.. Mike and I are perfectly fertile. PHYSICALLY is another story. I KNOW God had a plan for us with Grace. I had packed on about 15 lbs prior to my pregnancy, making me the HEAVIEST I have ever been. So when my body started rejecting food that 15 lb "cushion" was a life saver.. literally. When I went on medically leave at 10 weeks, my Mom's living situation allowed her MOVE IN WITH ME . Mike and I had recently moved into an inexpensive duplex that did not require my salary to pay bills. I know God was watching out for us. I also like to think that her being a "surprise" to us at our young age was a gift from God. Younger is healthier.

I do not feel that I have to explain to anyone my reasons for not wanting to be pregnant again. At this point in my life I don't want to. Their are many, many,many, many, reasons why Mike and I have chosen this for our family. Some are realistic and practical, some are selfish, and the majority lie in the fear of the "unknown" of what a second pregnancy could do to me... even more to us. I was researching a little tonight and come across this article, it was a really good read. Who knows what the future holds.. we will let that lie in the hands of God. But for now this "blogger" sums it up for us in her last line ..."Whatever we decide, we're all going to be O.K!"

this site was a huge help to me, and is very informative on severe hyperemesis gravidarum

http://www.hyperemesis.org/

WHY IS IT A CRIME TO HAVE AN ONLY CHILD?

By NATALY KOGAN

You know those moms who are easy-going and just take parenting in stride?

I am not one of them.

From the day my daughter was born, four and a half years ago, I’ve been a little obsessed with doing the right thing, parenting-wise. For example, when she was three months old I went back to work, and, even though my milk began to dry up almost immediately, I spent 45 minutes, three times each day, connected to the loud monster (a.k.a. breast pump) in my office, my assistant watching guard outside and some male colleagues making cow jokes in just-loud-enough voices. My doctor, my friends, my mom, my husband and my assistant, who was probably getting tired of the daily watchdog routine, all told me to just chill and give it up. No way. I had this artificially made-up goal to make it to six months and I was going to do the right thing and get there.

I tell you all this to show how hard I try to be a good parent. But apparently, my husband and I are completely messing up our daughter’s life anyway because we’re thinking she might be our only child.

The questions from, well, everyone, began around the time when our daughter turned three. I’d meet another mom who would ask me, a few minutes into our conversation, when we were having another. (It was usually “when”, and rarely “if”.)

“Oh, I am not sure, we might just have one,” I’d say, only to see the other mom’s face turn into one of disbelief, at best, and instant negative judgment, at worst. This would be followed by a range of comments, from the passive-aggressive “Are you serious?” to my personal favorite, “I’m sure you’ll change your mind soon.”

I got the same response from an OB GYN I visited recently, after we moved. When I said we might have just one child, I was given a look that made me feel like I’d just announced I planned to leave that child starving and alone in the house for days. I switched to a different OB, but I kept running into women who made it sound like having an only child is borderline criminal parent behavior.

This is probably a good time to tell you that I am an only child.

If you’re conjuring up images of a self-absorbed narcissist or a total loner without any friends, I’m going to disappoint you because while I have my quirks and “issues,” I’m actually quite nice. I like people; I am pretty good at sharing, unless it’s a piece of delicious dark chocolate for which you might have to fight me; I love my parents dearly and don’t think they ruined my life by not “giving” me a sibling. O.K., I’m a bit of a perfectionist and can’t sleep if the house isn’t clean, but I have enough friends from large families who are the same.

The other day I told a friend that I am getting really tired of the presumptuous “more kids” comments and she told me to just ignore them and do what’s best for our family.

She’s right. But first I have to figure out what IS best for our family. As much as my husband and I have talked endlessly about the reasons why we think having one is best, this is a ridiculously difficult and emotionally charged decision, and I obsess about it all the time. I hear a friend talk warmly about visiting her sister and I immediately think about how nice it would be for my daughter to experience that warmth when she is older. I see my daughter play with a little baby at the park and my eyes almost tear up as I daydream about her playing with her own sibling. I go through the good-things-about-having-siblings checklist in my mind, and come out convinced that yes, we should definitely have another.

And then I remember all the reasons why we think we may just want one. Some of them I hesitate to share here, but most have to do with worrying about maintaining our sanity, our relationship with each other and our daughter and having any time for horribly selfish things like our non-family and non-work interests.

It isn’t that I don’t think those reasons are good enough, but that I am struck at how many others don’t seem to think so. Sometimes I wish that I had a more “acceptable” reason to give them. If I were older I could say that, well, we’re too old to have another. If, like during my childhood spent in the former Soviet Union, we lived in extremely difficult conditions and literally didn’t have enough means for another child, I could use that as a justification. But we’re young, we have the means and, on top of it all, we appear to have gotten this parenting thing under control – we’ve got no “excuses.”

Which doesn’t mean, of course, that anyone has any business telling us what horrible parents we are for raising an only child or for well-meaning folks to give us endless insight about how great our daughter’s life will be if only she had a sibling. (This always makes me want to start telling them about all the people l know who don’t get along with their siblings, hate their siblings, don’t talk to their siblings or swear that their life would be so much better if they didn’t have to deal with their siblings. Last I checked, sibling love isn’t guaranteed.)

Like other parenting decisions — to breastfeed or not, to let kids cry it out or not, to go back to work or to stay home — figuring out how many kids to have is an extremely personal process, but it’s also one that causes others to share advice and opinions without much invitation.

My daughter recently asked me why we don’t buy her a brother or a sister. I tried not to laugh at the buy comment and asked her if she wanted one. “Nah,” she said, “I like being with you and Daddy.” And for that little moment I had no doubts — whatever we decide, we’re all going to be O.K

Look who thinks she's grown...

"let's say amen"

Our sweet girl made us so proud today. Grace goes to parkway baptist w.e.e school in college station everyday, and so far we have had way more positive experiences than negative. She goes to Spanish class, chapel, dance, and music with brother Bob weekly. But twice a day the center joins together in the main building to pray together as a group, this is my absolute favorite thing about this center. Today when I picked grace up from school her teacher was so excited to tell me that Grace led the group prayer and her note said " it was awesome!" my sweet little 2 year old sassy pants spoke loud and clear to pray for each person in her class by name and then said " and thank you God for everyone in the room" . I'm so proud to be her momma today :)

Going against my gut... For convenience

So you all know I'm a control freak when it comes to things I'm passionate about.

1.my child

2. My teaching

With Grace I am fierce about everything, I can not seem to relax about anything! Food, allergies, asthma, sleep, potty, clothing, hair, manners, learning, I think about all that constantly.. As I'm sure most mothers do too. ( I hope ). Anyways during Christmas break our sleep schedule got all out of wack, we laid with her to fall asleep, we rocked to sleep, we let her pass out in the car, and the worst one was watching tv and movies in her room till she was asleep. The movies were great at first.. Sleep timer for thirty minutes and she was out.. Then it turned into an hour, then we started hearing " mamma, back up my movie!" oh my goodness we realized we had a problem the night she watched "Annie" twice all the way through.. And was still up!!! So, my wonderful husband brought me back to "momma's in charge" mode. He reminded me of my own words, that we didn't need to create a crutch for a child that has never needed anything but a quiet room and a soft blanket to get to sleep. So back to bedtime routine we went Sunday night. 7 :30pm came along and we started her music sat with her for about five minutes until she was relaxed, gave kisses, and said our safe words " we'll check on you in just a minute" and she did just fine. Its Tuesday and she went down easy. She also had a great day at school. She's been having quite a few accidents at school the last few days because of the bad constipation and then because of the laxatives.. But we had a no accident day today! Woo hoo! I bet it's because of the good nights sleep!

Mom and Dad=1 Grace= 0 haha

Look how big she's gotten! AND Look how big she WAS!

So, I went to the doctor this week for my annual and did the dreaded step on the scale, and my doctor brought to my attention that I had lost 10 lbs this year, and last year at the same time I had lost 10 lbs! Soo from the first picture to the last is a 20 pound loss. I love looking at progression photos of miss Gracie too! She has gotten so big so fast! Though, her 2 year gain is somewhere around 10 lbs :) I'm excited that I can see the slow trim down in photos!

Secret to my success

1. A toddler who needs something every time I try to eat.. ( for all you dieters out there, you can rent her for a small fee (: ha)

2. A health conscious husband

3. A fabulous appetite suppressor called "STRESS" ha.

My goal for year three is to actually "move"..... I hate exercise.

HOLY $#!T (Reader beware of poop)

Ok... so I haven't blogged in a while

Well, I never saw this coming... never.

Grace has always been a "regular" girl. Mike calls her a "ten o-clocker". Meaning, her "bowels" have always moved right along. I never had to bribe her to potty train, she was "poop" trained months before the other, and she even tells us to "SHUT THE DOOR" when its her time to go. SO I partially blame myself for not paying attention to my poor child's "lack of potty". She didn't ask to go and I didn't remind her, and daycare didn't notify us... so long story short, my sweet girl went 9 DAYS WITHOUT A BM!!! It took 7 for me to even notice!! OMG!!! We took her to the doctor on Saturday because she was afraid to go and wouldn't even take a bribe. They massaged her tummy.. said she was literally "full of $#!t" and prescribed VERY LARGE doses of Miralax.. we got home.. she freaked out (and in a lot of pain) passed something that looked like a brick. By Tuesday she still had not gone potty by on her own, so we had to do the "baby fleet" (google it) within seconds we got her going, still very traumatic and scary.

Soo my anxiety "clicks" on in a situation like this.. and I start making up impossible scenarios

1. my child will never poop

2. she will have a psychological fear of pooping

3. she will regress in potty training..continue to #4

4. i'll have the kid that is in diapers in kindergarden

and just as I have convinced myself that my kid will never be the same and that life as we know it is over.. We got home from dinner tonight and she says "umm I gotta go poop before my bath"

PRAISE GOD!! just like that.. this whole mess is over!! Wooooo HOOO!!

SOoo Busy..

I haven't really blogged is a loooooong time. Work has been so busy, Mike has been traveling with work (too much if you ask me), and Grace is an extremely active, mommy addicted, 2 year old, who rarely sits still. SOO I am blogging watching HBO as Grace is asleep and Mike is in Austin, yet again.

Let me catch you up on Gracie Goo.. She is 28 months old :) and changing so much everyday. I know that sounds cliche but my goodness, she is changing. It's crazy how you look back and think I just THOUGHT she was talking, or I just THOUGHT she had personality. She such a young lady now.. I'll explain.

She has started to really love to pretend play. He favorite game is "nap time" this is where she pulls out all of her baby blankets, lays them on the floor, turns on her night light and fan, and puts all of her babies to sleep. She explains to whoever is playing with her that, "We have to be still, ok?" "We are soo tired" then she pops up and says "Ok we are awake now, its sunny outside"

She is coloring and drawing for longer amounts of time now. We finally got the "grip" down on the pen/crayon/marker, and this kid CAN WRITE a LETTER G!! it is CRAZY! She also loves to draw rainbows, clouds, and smileys. When you ask her what she wants you to draw, 9 times out of 10 it's a fireman... I have no idea where this came from.. She also LOVES to draw with a pen, and she is showing some "daddy" personality and making sure she "clicks" the lids closed on all of her markers after she uses each one.

She is such a lady. She loves to look pretty, sparkle-y, clean, and matching. She insists on the style of her hair in the morning telling me " just one pony today... over here... I need 2 bows," She prefers sparkle-y shoes over tennis shoes (I mean who doesn't?) and we are having a few arguments in the morning over "not those pants MOMMA!" When she eats she insists on a wet rag with her plate to wipe her hands and face, (Sorry folks no funny spaghetti sauce faced pictures of this kid), and she says "Oh no, sorry momma I spilled" even with the smallest drop of food or liquid.

She is still our picky picky picky eater. I could go out on a limb and say this is the worst it has been yet. No veggies on their own, I am still hiding them. and THANK the LORD for those organic/fruit/veggie squeeze pouches. She eats very simply, she likes real cheese, crackers, turkey and chicken, yogurt, fresh fruit (not canned), applesauce, fruit leather, dried fruit, cereal, tortillas, toast, and pasta, and tomato sauce, and that is about it. We give her a multi-vitamin and a TUMS (for calcium) everyday. Eating is not enjoyable for her, she doesn't understand why we have to sit and eat... and then eat again. My theory is that she is a super taster!! HA. She was ALMOST 25 lbs at last weeks doctors appointment. ;)

She is in LOVE with the Cinderella movie, she likes to talk you through each part, especially when the step sisters tear apart Cinderella's dress. :) She says " Oh my gosh...They are soo mean to her dress, She's NOT in trouble! poor Cinderella"

She is counting well and can count up to 6 objects like " I have 5 cookies!"

She loves to have her fingernails and toenails painted, to wear jewelry, and hairbows.

And my goodness she is talking and singing non stop. There is no use me telling you all of the things this kid says. I could go on for days... hopefully you have had the pleasure of a conversation with her. She also is following directions really well from adults, like she is really concentrating on what she is supposed to do.

As tired as she makes me, she also makes us laugh soo hard. And she is really starting to be a daddy's girl... though she is stuck to momma most of the time :/

We are looking forward to more firsts and laughs this year with our sweet girl!

For sweet Paige!

"Let's just pretend she's three.."

So last week I posted about Grace being the "mean girl" at school. When I talked to her about being mean to her friends she would say things like " I can't like her.." or "She cries.." or " He takes my toy." When you ask her what she did she says " I push (name of small child)" or "I bite ____". This situation was really pushing me to my stress limits for MULTIPLE reasons.

Reason #1: my child is MUCH too cute to be mean :).

Reason # 2: Biting is an EARLY toddler issue that starts because of teething or language frustration... both of which do not pertain to my child. (she has all of her teeth and says things like "You know better than that..")

Reason #3: I can not stand the thought of my child not being "liked" by her teachers or causing frustration among other kids.

Soooo I went a little "mommy psycho" and set up a meeting with the director and her teachers. Her teacher wanted me to pretty much "get over it" that she was 2 years old and kids act out and Grace was only acting out when she was frustrated with another child not responding to her previous words of warning. If you know me, which most of you do, I am not one to sit back and be "cool" with someone else's advice when it completely goes against what I want. I will not ever be "ok" with Grace being mean. So we started brainstorming. They hooked a teether to her and told her to use it to bite instead of her friends.... I hate this technique, it's confusing.. it sends the message don't bite your friends, but hey.. bite this thing. so we scratched that. THEN we started punishing. Talking about what we did and not doing some of her favorite daily things.. getting a popsicle, watching tangled, riding her scooter... you get the picture. EPIC FAIL. THEN we started rewarding good behavior and building her up for a prize (bribe) .... this worked for 2 days. Day one: "GRACE!! Today.. if you are sweet to all of your friends we will go get a SLUSHY!!!" success. She talked all day at school about a slushy, told all of her teachers and made a CHOICE not to be mean, "smart little stinker" The next day, we used chocolate as the bribe, when we picked her up she had a good day but asked for a popsicle instead so we went with that reward. Day three was paint our fingernails. She did good until 4:45pm then attempted to bite, she was caught without any injuries.

So here is the consensus.. Grace is too verbal to be in the 2 year old room. She is getting frustrated with kids not wanting to "play" with her. She wants to pretend, and play house, and sing songs, and dance, read books, and color. She does not enjoy fighting over a toy, she doesn't put toys in her mouth, and she wants to use objects for their specific purpose. SO after the director observed Grace in her classroom for a while she also did a little pre-school readiness test with Grace. Grace was able to verbally describe 3 pictures one happy, one sad, and was able to tell the director what was happening in another. She had book orientation, she knew which way to turn the pages and could find the front and back. This last meeting with director was really optimistic. She told me " Lets just pretend she's three, she may be two but she sure doesn't act like it." They moved her to to three year old room and she LOVES it. She is talking about all of her friends, she told me that they learned the "pokey turn around" dance, and today she said " I don't bite my friends". Relief. I am so hopeful that this is going to work! She is adjusting well and seems to really be worn out when we get home from all of the activity. SO glad she is happy!